STARTING SCHOOL LATER FOR TEENS.
The Osgood File. Dave Ross, in for Charles Osgood, on the CBS Radio Network.
Parents have known it for a long time.
And now, the pediatricians have finally come around...
SOT - Kaiya Olsen, age 16
"We all showed up for school on the first day, and all complained about how tired we were as soon as we walked in the door." (:05)
...teenagers are just not morning people.
More after this from Charlie...
((( BREAK )))
The American Academy of Pediatrics has made it official: high school students aren't getting enough sleep - and school needs to start later.
Dr. Judith Owens - director of sleep medicine at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC - is the lead author of the new policy...
SOT - Dr. Judith Owens
"Getting less sleep is associated with poorer grades, with lower performance on standard tests - so across the board, we see a whole host of very negative consequences." (:12)
...including obesity, high blood pressure and depression.
CBS' Dr. Jon LaPook says high school students should be sleeping between eight-and-a-half and nine-and-a-half hours a night - but only 13 percent do.
Which is why the pediatricians are recommending that high school start no earlier than 8:30...
SOT - Dr. Jon LaPook, CBS News Correspondent
"There are going to be a lot of issues here. One of them is that parents rely on their kids going to school, so that they can go to work. So, it's going to be an issue of getting care for the kids - maybe somebody else to take them to school. But, I think you always have the health of the kids trumping the convenience of the parents." (:17)
And after you've figured all that out, the pediatricians have another suggestion: a smartphone curfew...
SOT - Dr. Jon LaPook
"There are some other factors that keep kids up. One of them seems to be screens, so the light of the screen that your kid is using - that iPhone light or whatever - actually can inhibit melatonin, which is a hormone made in the brain that helps promote sleep." (:14)
I did some checking - and good news: there are parental apps which will automatically turn your teenager's phone off at bedtime.
That should make you pretty popular.
The Osgood File. Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network. |
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