A teenager getting up early in the morning in a good mood is a very rare thing and up until now it was thought that this was simply because teenagers are lazy or that they think it ‘cool’ to go to bed late and get up late. Now there is new research to contradict this view. A hormone called melatonin which helps us fall asleep is usually produced in adults at around 10pm however, a study has now shown that teenagers only begin to produce the hormone at 1am, this could account for the reason why teenagers find it so easy to stay up at night but find it so difficult to get up in the morning. Puberty could also be to blame for teenagers needing more sleep than the average adult. During puberty the brain goes through reorganisation so as the brain does this during sleep it is obvious that teenagers will need more sleep. Not only that but sleep is also vital for committing things to memory and dealing with emotions, in the teenage years of a person’s life there is a lot of this to be done, so logically more sleep will be needed.

There has also been some more recent research that shows that sleep patterns can be to do with how much light a person receives. So as there is less light in the winter, with the evenings getting darker earlier and it being miserable and cloudy outside this could affect a teenagers sleeping patterns resulting in it being harder for them to get up during the winter than in the summer.

It is proven that teenagers who get over 9 hours of sleep a night, regularly, have more of a chance to perform better at school and in sports than teenagers who get less than 7 hours of sleep a night. Also, teenagers who get over 9 hours of sleep a night have a stronger immune system.

So next time you go to turf a teenager out of bed, think what that extra hour of sleep could be doing to their memory and immune system!

By Community Correspondent Harriet Page.