I know how important sleep is on your health and so I was looking into ways of how I can improve my own DDs sleep and found that it is scientifically proven that teens not only need more sleep than younger children or adults but that their biological clock is set so that they need to fall asleep and wake up later.
The effects of this lack of sleep have massive impacts on grades, mental health, suicide rates etc.
The moodiness/laziness that we associate with teens is actually due to this lack of sleep. Obesity is increased in teens who lack sleep which then carries on into adulthood as the need for sleep is replaced with food especially sugary ones and more recently energy drinks. Reckless or addictive behaviour like drugs and alcohol dependency increases which also impacts on adulthood.
There are long lists of all the negative impacts that occur due to the lack of sleep and one researcher likened it to not letting a small toddler nap and how they would be moody and would not be able to carry out normal tasks.
There was a petition last year for schools to start at 10am but I never heard of this and haven't heard anything since.
If starting school one/two hours later has such massive benefits to not only our children but also us as adults then surely this needs to be a priority instead of spending millions on obesity, mental health, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres etc surely it would be better to try and prevent these issues rather than treat them once it's too late.
Does anyone have any experience or views on this?