17 year old Sara gets out of bed, reluctantly, at 6:54 in the morning. "Everday - - every single school or swimming day - - I don't want to get up. I just want to go back to bed."
But according to a study from Brown University, sleeping in - - especially on weekends - - may make kids more tired come Monday. "It basically pushes your circadian rhythm off it's normal, it's normal pace. So, that you end up going to bed later as well as getting up later and that does not prepare you for the weekday when you've got to get up for school.", said Dr. Jeffrey Durmer. He works for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and says that makes kids tired at school and less effective.
He adds, "As you continue to sleep deprive someone, their neuro-cognitive abilities, their ability to perform tasks, to use their memory, goes down. And continues to appreciably go down over the course of all the days of sleep debt."
Experts have several suggestions for a good night's sleep: limit physical activities at night, no video games or television right before bed and keep a consistent sleep schedule. Dr. Durmer adds, "The best solution is to maintain about the same hours of sleep and wake time: the going to bed period and also the wake up time on the weekdays and the weekends. It can shift by an hour or two depending on activities of course, but trying to maintain that sleep and wake time is very important."
BUT 17 year old Sara says there are too many other things she wants to do. She says in the teen years it's ok to miss some sleep. "Well I guess if I was gonna do this anytime, like not sleep, this is a good time, I mean I'm healthy and I take pretty good care of myself and I sleep when I can."
