Their studies have shown that adolescents need between 8.5 and 9.25 hours of sleep each night but that more than a quarter of all kids in middle and high school are sleeping less than 7 hours. Some research does point to the benefits of the extra sleep as well. In addition, students with worse grades reported greater weekend delays of sleep schedule than did those with better grades.
Teachers also report students are more alert during the first two periods of the school day.
Dr. Mary Carskadon, PhD, Director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Research Laboratory at Bradley Hospital in East Providence, R.I., says that because of their physiological changes, adolescents tend to fall asleep and awaken later and often experience an increase in daytime sleepiness. Teenagers are getting way too little sleep, Carskadon says. They're being asked to get up at the wrong time. They are being asked to be in school when their brains are asleep. We don t give sleep much respect in this society.