How to help tired teenagers study? Let them stay in bed

SLEEPING in late is one of the most common and familiar traits of teenagers.

Now snooze-loving students are to test if starting their day at 10am could help them perform better in classrooms.

Researchers have launched a recruitment drive for Scottish schools which have noticed problems with pupils’ over-tiredness or lack of attention in class and are interested in taking part in the experiment.

It would mean teenagers in fifth and sixth year being given a different timetable so that they start and finish their lessons later than usual.

The trial will examine whether or not deviating from traditional early start times could help benefit youngsters’ school work and wellbeing by tailoring days better to their body clocks.

Experts from the universities of Birmingham, Oxford and Aberdeen are recruiting schools across the UK to take part in the study. The trial will look at teenagers’ sleep patterns and test if a later start time could be to their advantage.

Although the tendency of adolescents to stay up late at night and lie in for hours at the weekend is often the source of parents’ frustration, the researchers say this is a genuine health issue linked with their natural development.

Professor Paul Montgomery, lead researcher from the University of Birmingham, said: ‘We want people to be aware that sleep deprivation in adolescents is a real problem which affects their functioning, their wellbeing and even their academic performance.

‘We want to work with schools, with parents, pupils, teachers, head teachers, support staff, local education authorities and civil servants to run a number of studies to find out what the ideal starting time is, and how schools can manage this.’

He added: ‘We are particularly interested in Scottish pupils because in the north of the country the difference in day length is more marked.

‘Understanding how that plays out into kids’ sleep will be very interesting.

‘The idea would be to have a later starting time and a later finishing time and to organise the school’s timetables to allow this.’

The academics are understood to be in talks with a number of schools already, although none so far have been confirmed as signing up to the changes.

Secondary schools in Scotland generally begin their day before 9am.

Research already suggests that teenagers need around eight to ten hours of sleep a night, but many do not get enough, with the time they spend on electronic devices or TVs being blamed for their late bedtimes.

Human sleep patterns shift towards later times for both sleeping and waking during the teen years. This means that it is natural to be unable to fall asleep before 11pm, with many teenagers having long lie-ins during the weekends.

Experts have previously called for later school starting times – as late as 11am – to combat the sleep deprivation problem and improve mental health and exam results.

But other researchers say that the problem is down to modern lifestyles which make it harder for people to get up in the morning, including bright light from phones and other devices that make it more difficult for people to get to sleep at night.

‘Sleep deprivation is a real problem’