Minnesota Medical Association Press Release
Minnesota Medical Association NEWS
SLEEP-STARVED TEENS ARE IN DANGER, WARNS MINNESOTA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Minneapolis--In a letter to all Minnesota school superintendents, the Minnesota Medical Association (MMA) warns that sleep deprivation has serious consequences for adolescents. Out of this concern, the MMA urges Minnesota school districts to eliminate early school starting hours to recognize teenagers' biological need to sleep longer and later than younger children.
Scientific studies show that many adolescents need more than 9 1/2 hours of sleep-more sleep than children or adults-just when demands on their time are increasing. Many young people who are juggling school, jobs, sports, homework, and socializing, cut back on their sleep-sometimes with disastrous results. Sleep deprivation causes accidents and interferes with learning.
It's not just social pressure, sports, and jobs that keep teenagers up late. The body's natural sleep/wake cycle changes during puberty so teenagers stay alert later at night and are sleepier in the morning. The shift in their biological time clock makes it hard for teenagers to doze off early enough to get the sleep they need in time for an early class.
Despite these scientific findings, many Minnesota schools start classes earlier for older adolescents than for younger children. For the reasons stated above, the MMA urges school districts to eliminate early starting hours of school for teenagers.
Lack of sleep can be dangerous. Young drivers who suffer from sleep deprivation have trouble concentrating and may even fall asleep behind the wheel. Motor vehicle accidents were the second largest single cause of death in persons aged 15 to 24 years in the U.S.A. in 1989. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that 200,000 reported automobile accidents each year may be sleep-related and 20 percent of all drivers have fallen asleep behind the wheel.
The danger is worse if fatigue is combined with alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. "One or two beers in a sleepy adolescent can be seriously impairing," says Mark W. Mahowald, M.D., director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. "Sleep deprivation and alcohol are a dangerous.
Sleep deprivation also interferes with learning. "Sleep deprivation among teenagers severely undermines the educational mission of our schools," warns Maurice W. Dysken, M.D., immediate past president of the Minnesota Psychiatric Society. "Sleepiness causes impairment of perception, reasoning, performance, and judgment. Sleep loss affects performance on virtually all cognitive and sustained attention tasks."
Sleep loss is cumulative. After a week battling their biological time clocks, exhausted teenagers try to catch up on their sleep on the weekends. All too often parents shake them out of bed. "Let the kids sleep late," Mahowald urges parents. "Napping and sleeping late doesn't mean an adolescent is lazy, depressed, or slothful. Sleep is a biological imperative. The body needs sleep the way it needs food and drink."
For more information about sleep deprivation research, contact Mark Vukelich at the Minnesota Medical Association, a professional association representing the state's 9,000 physicians.
Contact: Mark Vukelich or Lorrie Holmgren, Minnesota Medical Association,
Suite 300, Broadway Place East, 3433 Broadway Street NE, Minneapolis,
MN 55413, 612/378-1875