AdSleep

It is commonly believed that teenagers are lazy because they go to sleep and wake up late, especially on weekends and school holidays. Whilst there are social factors at play here, such as mobile phone use before bed, there is science behind it too!

During puberty, the internal body clock shifts later and later, meaning that teenagers don’t feel sleepy until later in the evening or alert until later in the morning. This is less of a problem on free days when teens can lie-in, but on school nights, many teens get too little sleep and the sleep they do get is poor quality!

There are many reasons why insufficient sleep durations and poor quality sleep are problematic including poor mental well-being and physical health. However, sleep is also critical for cognitive functioning (learning, memory, decision making, creativity etc.). The importance of sleep here goes beyond improved concentration. In fact, sleep helps the brain to move old memories around, making room for new learning and storing old information long-term. For this reason, we are particularly worried about the impact of insufficient sleep on school nights for teenagers’ cognition.

To investigate this, we are tracking the sleep habits of 500+ 11-16-year-olds over the next 3 years using self-report diaries and movement trackers. Researchers will then visit the teens in school to assess their learning, reading ability, and other measures of school performance including teacher ratings and assessments.

We hope this research project will shed light on the true impact of changes to sleep during adolescence on real-world performance in school, which could have important implications for educational policy and practice. This project will also give teens a chance to engage with scientific research and hopefully expose them to new careers in science which they may not yet be aware of.