How smell of teen’s rooms can interfere with sleep... and grades
THE warm whiff of unwashed socks and half-finished food has long driven mothers out of teenagers’ bedrooms.
Now scientists say it could also be stopping adolescents sleeping properly. Oxford University researchers suggest that the stale, smelly air in teenagers’ rooms could be playing havoc with their mood and having a knock-on effect on their grades.
A nationwide study will encourage youngsters to practise what the researchers call good ‘bedroom hygiene’, including opening their windows and turning down their radiators. Colin Espie, a professor of sleep medicine, said: ‘Young people never open their windows, their rooms are never ventilated. The smelly teenager’s bedroom is a by-product of the fact that the room is full of rebreathed air, which is low in oxygen and high in nitrogen.
‘If you keep on rebreathing the same air in a small bedroom that is hot and not ventilated you will wake up with a headache after a poor night’s sleep.’
The Teen Sleep study will track the moods and academic performance of more than 30,000 pupils in around 100 schools for a year. Parents and pupils will be advised to banish smartphones, iPads and other technology that can disturb sleep from bedrooms.
Grades will be recorded at the start and end, moods will be monitored and sleep patterns tracked.
Some pupils will also get to have a lie-in to check whether starting school later boosts achievement. Previous research has shown the teenage body clock runs two to four hours behind the adult version.
But the quality of the air in bedrooms could also be vital. Professor Espie told the Sunday Times: ‘It’s not therapy but getting teenagers to take responsibility for sleep in the same way as sex education or exercise lessons ‘