| Lack of morning light keeps teenagers up at night: Study | Send to a friend |
| Monday, 22 February 2010 17:38 |
|
Twelve months of putting up with her 18-year-old daughter’s late sleeping habits have gotten Doreen Kimaro worried that her teenager could be undergoing a stressful experience. “It literally takes up to two or three hours after everyone else has resigned to bed that she sleeps every night,” says the Dar es Salaam-based mother. Her daughter has spent the past year at home after failing Form 4 in 2008, and Doreen thinks stress is keeping her daughter awake.But a recent first field study on the impact of light on teenagers’ sleeping habits could provide another clue to what could be affecting her teen. The study that sampled 11 secondary school teenagers, and just published in Neuroendocrinology Letters, finds that insufficient daily morning light exposure contributes to teenagers not getting enough sleep. “As teenagers spend more time indoors, they miss out on essential morning light needed to stimulate the body’s 24-hour biological system, which regulates the sleep/wake cycle,” reports Dr Mariana Figueiro, Programme Director at the US Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lighting Research Centre (LRC) and lead researcher of the new study. “These morning-light-deprived teenagers are going to bed later, getting less sleep and possibly under-performing on standardised tests. We are starting to call this the teenage night owl syndrome.” Doreen says her daughter spends more time indoors, and sleeps very late at night. “She wakes up late in the morning because she feels she doesn’t have a reason to be up early.” Her problem could just be a tip of the iceberg. Most teenagers in Dar es Salaam in secondary school have rigid schedules requiring them to be in school very early in the morning. These students are likely to miss the morning light because they are often travelling to and arriving at school before the sun is up or as it’s just rising. In addition, the schools are not likely providing adequate electric light or daylight to stimulate this biological or circadian system, which regulates body temperature, alertness, appetite, hormones and sleep patterns. Contacted to comment on the new findings, some Dar es Salaam-based medical practitioners said they were yet to find out the link between morning light and late sleeping among teenagers. But Dr Figueiro explains that our biological system responds to light much differently than our visual system. It is much more sensitive to blue light. Therefore, having enough light in the classroom to read and study does not guarantee that there is sufficient light to stimulate our biological system. “According to our study, however, the situation in schools can be changed rapidly by the conscious delivery of daylight, which is saturated with short-wavelength, or blue, light,” reports Dr Figueiro. Implications for school design Throughout her research, Dr Figueiro has repeatedly come face-to-face with the enormous concern of parents over teenagers going to bed too late.“Our findings pose two questions: “How will we promote exposure to morning light and how will we design schools differently?” says Dr Figueiro. The study findings should have significant implications for school design. “Delivering daylight in schools may be a simple, non-pharmacological treatment for students to help them increase sleep duration,” concludes Dr Figueiro. As evidenced in prior studies by Dr Figueiro, light therapy can also be used to improve sleep in Alzheimer’s patients, who usually display uneven sleep patterns. “By removing light at certain times of day, and giving light at other times, you can synchronise the sleep/wake patterns of Alzheimer’s patients with the light/dark pattern, providing them with more consolidated sleep,” says Dr. Figueiro. E Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
Latest News
Most Read
Gallery
Vote
Breaking!!