Teenage angst and the DST time change

[davester]

Anybody else experiencing this? My high school age son is normally not the friendliest kid early in the morning, but with the new time change his level of morning sullen grumpiness has hit new heights. Yikes! Don't combine raging hormones with lack of sleep!

[mattkime]

vampires have also been upset by the change in DST

[AlphaDog]

"Raging hormones" reminded me of something I saw on the news. A researcher has been working on isolating the cause of the dramatic mood swings in teenagers, and preliminary results indicate it could be the hormone THP. I thought it was interesting, so here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/2007...ss_cbsnews

Research also indicates (although I don't have a link for documenting this) that teenagers just simply do not do well in the morning under any circumstances, so DST would just exacerbate the problems of getting up and getting moving. It'll pass; he'll adjust within a few days.

[Zoidberg]

I'm not going to weigh in on the DST thing (I see benefits and minuses) but I'm 100% for alteration of the school day schedule. I think 9 to 4 is much more reasonable.

As with everything, YMMV.

[kajot]

Research also indicates (although I don't have a link for documenting this) that teenagers just simply do not do well in the morning under any circumstances, so DST would just exacerbate the problems of getting up and getting moving. It'll pass; he'll adjust within a few days.

Yes, this is pretty well documented now. When I was in high school and college, getting up early in the morning was just painful.

A 9 to 4 school schedule might be marginally nicer for teenagers, but it would not be a good schedule for working parents.

[AlphaDog]

I've always been weird. I don't remember having any trouble getting up in the mornings when I was a teenager. I do painfully remember that every teenager I was parenting was afflicted with this hideous condition.

I love how Louie pops out of bed every morning with a smile on his doggy face.

[Sam3]

Most parents don't enforce logical bedtime rules for teenagers. Studies have shown that teenagers need more sleep that pre-teens, yet usually get a lot less because they are allowed to stay up much later on school nights.

[elmo3]

This is a great book:

http://tinyurl.com/2skwoe

Among other things, it explains the issue quite succinctly, backed up by simple research:

Teen are still children, and need as much sleep as any child does--as much as 11-12 hours/night. But at the same time their bodies are also wrestling them into adulthood and into adult cycles, where they go to bed later and later.

The result is a teen that "sleeps in very late". But he's not sleeping in; he's simply doing what his body has told him to do. On the one hand, his body is telling him to stay up later. But when he sleeps, his body is telling him to get the sleep he needs.

It all straightens out later on. The teen years are full of such dichotomy.

And then when you grow older and have kids, you stay up to midnight and get up at 5am and it's no big deal.

Then you have grandkids, and you go to be at 7pm and you're up at 7am.

[Zoidberg]

[quote elmo3]And then when you grow older and have kids, you stay up to midnight and get up at 5am and it's no big deal.
Yup, dead on target. But more out of necessity than anything else.

Thanks for the book link; interesting.

[Grateful11]

My son just started driving to school last week and this week he's driving to school in nearly
complete darkness. Driving alone is enough to worry about.