New research is coming out of this year’s gathering of sleep professionals at SLEEP 2008. This is the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS). A recent focus has been on how the lack of sleep is having negative effects on students and athletes. One direction the discussions have gone is sure to make all students happy since it deals with school start times and the effectiveness of making them later.

It may come as a surprise to most people but it is recommended that teens require an average of 9.25 hours of sleep to be alert the following day. In reality, most teens are not even getting close when they are averaging around 7 hours of sleep each night. A discussion about why teens find it hard to fall asleep earlier to get more sleep can be found here at the Sleep Education site run by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Basically, the information says that due to biological changes that take place around 11 or 12 years of age, teens find it hard to fall asleep before 11 p.m. or later. Due to school start times this forces teens to have a significant loss of sleep producing a long list of problems.

Problems that arise from lack of sleep in teens can be specific to the individual but can include difficulty learning, thinking, making decisions, using good judgment and solving problems. Moodiness, irritability, sluggishness and decreased motivation are problems most people have experienced at some point in time due to lack of sleep. Besides reducing overall health, immune system health, growth and memory, lack of sleep can be a big health problem when students get behind the wheel. It’s estimated that over 50,000 crashes a year are caused by sleep deprived young adults under the age of 25 years old.

The possible solution for teens and all this sleepiness is to have schools move to later start times. In a specific study done by Zaw W. Htwe, MD, of Norwalk Hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center in Norwalk, Conneticut it focused on a group of 259 high school students. When the students were surveyed about their sleep habits, it was found they were getting an average amount of sleep of 7.03 hours on school nights. The bed-times and wake-times were found to be 10:52 p.m. and 6:12 a.m. on average. That gives the average student a sleep time of 7 hours and 20 minutes for every school night. With a recommendation of 9 hours or more for teens, it’s obvious there is some sleep deprivation that seems to be consistent with most teens.

When looking at most school start times you will notice that 7:35 a.m. is pretty standard in the United States. There are some instances where the final bell to be in class rings at a later time giving students time to eat breakfast and socialize. In this specific study they adjusted the school start time from 7:35 am. to 8:15 a.m. This 40-minute delay in the school day produced pretty significant results. The researchers found that on average students sleep time increased by 33 minutes for school nights.

It seems that a common misconception would be if you give teens a later start time in school, they would adjust their sleep time to be later and later. The later the school start time, the later the actual bedtime. The research proved misconceptions and common beliefs wrong when students actually utilized the extra 40 minutes of time for sleep. Quoted directly from a corresponding author of the study, ““Following a 40-minute delay in start time, the students utilized 83 percent of the extra time for sleep. This increase in sleep time came as a result of being able to ‘sleep in’ to 6:53 a.m., with little delay in their reported school night bedtime. This study demonstrates that students given the opportunity to sleep longer, will, rather than extend their wake activities on school nights.”

In an effort to help teens find ways to get more sleep even if they aren’t blessed with a later school start time, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has released 10 tips on how teens can get more sleep. Tip one is fairly well known by most people but drives home the importance of a consistent bedtime routine. Tip number two says that bedtime should include a relaxing setting. Piles of books, papers and deadlines around your bed is not going to help you relax!

The next tip seems to coincide with consistency and suggests you get a full night’s sleep every night. Tip number four says to quit eating and drinking any caffeinated drinks before bedtime and avoid medicines that have stimulants in them. Tip number five is interesting because most students cram for exams. Don’t fall into the cram for the exam trap, it’s suggested this can wreak havoc on long-term sleep schedules. You can read a story here that was run by Fox News saying that, “Students Who Pull All-Nighters Have Lower GPAs.”

One big hurdle for most teenagers these days is tip number six, which suggests that you do not have TVs and computers in the bedroom. Before you know it, recommendations will be calling for the ban of cell phones in your bedroom to increase sleep! If you’re going to bed hungry or you’re eating meals right before bedtime, then tip number seven is for you, stop the habit now. If you’re exercising six hours before bedtime you’re not helping a night full of good rest either, says tip number eight. When making sure your bedroom is relaxing you also need to make sure that it’s quiet, dark and a little cool to make sure your zzz’s happen easier. The last tip goes along with consistency and says you should get up the same time every morning. If you follow these tips you should find that it’s easier to get more restful sleep and get to sleep faster. If you’re really lucky, your school may start to see research like this study and move to a later start. Here’s to wishing anyway!