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MARY CARSKADON

Work, School, Sleep, And Circadian Timing In Adolescents

MARY A. CARSKADON, Ph.D.
E.P. Bradley Hospital Sleep Research Laboratory
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University School of Medicine

leep patterns in humans depend upon the complex interplay of several distinct processes, including maturation and development, behavioral choices and demands, and intrinsic sleep and circadian mechanisms. Each factor likely plays an important role during the transition from childhood to adulthood, a time when significant changes in sleep patterns have been identified. One of the most prominent sleep pattern alterations identified during adolescent development is the tendency for the timing of sleep to delay, a pattern particularly evident on weekends when sleep is less constrained.
School schedules in the United States often require an earlier attendance time for adolescents than for younger children. Thus, the sleep delay is challenged by a nonnegotiable school start time and consequently an early rising time. Our data show that adolescents confronted by an earlier start of their school day do not adjust by undergoing a circadian phase advance and sleeping adequately at an earlier time. On the contrary, quite a few students start the school day in the face of a circadian pattern that is so delayed as to result in excessive sleepiness and abnormal sleep transitions in the morning hours. Many US high school students also work for pay. As many as 40% of 10th, 11th, and 12th graders report working 20 or more hours a week. Such schedules further compress sleep times.
We are concerned that school schedules requiring students to attend at a time when they struggle to stay awake limits the students' motivation and interest in the educational process. In contrast, many students go to after school jobs at a time when they are more alert. This more friendly time frame, as well as the tangible monetary rewards of jobs, may contribute to many students' preferences for work over school. Thus, we are concerned that sleep and circadian factors have a powerful impact on student disaffection with school and their affinity for after school jobs.