MINNEAPOLIS, May 6, 2008—All the evidence shows that sleepiness keeps teens from performing, from learning, and from enjoying that time of their lives. Yet year after year, we continue to send them to school with their eyes half-closed.

The Pioneer Press today ran an article quoting Mark Mahowald, M.D., director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorder Center and a member of the MMA, on the problem of sleepiness among student-aged people.

The weight of evidence indicates that sleep is valuable for teens, not just to boost academic achievement but to keep people healthy and happy.

The MMA knew this in 1994 when it recommended that school districts start high school classes later. Edina High School, one of the first schools in the nation to switch to a later start time, in 1996, experienced good results, incuding an increase in participation in school sports.

Some schools heeded that call, and their results have been positive. Other schools, distracted by problems of bus scheduling and economics, have not done as well.

The problem is, Mahowald said, that teens need a lot of sleep to perform well -- about 9.5 hours -- and hardly any teens are getting that much. They are a bleary-eyed generation, and it is costing them a great deal.

"They're not sleeping in because they're bored, lazy or don't want to do their Saturday chores," Mahowald told the Pioneer Press. "They're sleep-deprived."

Getting a teenager to go to bed at a decent hour is something most parents are unable to do. Mahowald said that people get excited in the last couple of hours before they go to bed. They are unable to go to sleep until their bodies give them the signal that they are tired.

"That's why we've been beating this drum for so many years," Mahold told reporter Megan Boldt. "It just doesn't make sense. We should send kids to school when it promotes learning rather than deters it." 

Mahowald understands that schools face many difficult hurdles, and that excuses for being sleepy are legion. But he has observed the problem for a long time, and listened to the excuses, and noticed one thing:

"None of the excuses has the word 'education' in it," he said.

Pioneer Press article