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Let Teenagers Sleep In

nytimes.com

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Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#81

Post by croon »

digitailor wrote: post #74

Well, no one else has said it, so I guess I drew the short straw. Teenagers are most likely wired for later nights because they have reached initial fertility. They will sneak off in the night to fool around, especially if they haven't had a child yet. At the risk of sounding patronizing, this is how babies are made. Adolescence is the age when women would first become pregnant, and the ancient's concept of marriage…

I, and I assume most guys (and gals) in their puberty were horny most of the time, but my being a night owl I don't think factored into that at all. I studied much better at night, I was a lot more creative (music mostly) at night, and everything was more peaceful at night. I was horny too, I guess, but that was more of a 24/7 thing.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#82

Post by foldr »

digitailor wrote: post #79
majos wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is true. Yes, adolescence is when childbearing ability and the associated hormonal incentives start, but where is this "sex must happen at night" component coming from? If anything, I would guess that's a modern phenomenon being retrofitted onto the past.

I'd say visibility, permission avoidance, the excitement, and I'm sure there's more. Just like now, why would it have changed? For what specific reasons? Obviously spring and summer would be easier. I don't think that's retrofitting; I think we're continuing it still and the lack of recognition of that is confusing me. I'm positive they figured out how to have sex in the day as well when possible. But nomadic daytime…

You couldn't do much of anything at night with stone-age lighting technology. Sneaking around at night would be more likely to net you a tryst with a nearby tree branch or ditch than an exciting sexual encounter.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#83

Post by digitailor »

croon wrote: post #81
digitailor wrote: post #74

Well, no one else has said it, so I guess I drew the short straw. Teenagers are most likely wired for later nights because they have reached initial fertility. They will sneak off in the night to fool around, especially if they haven't had a child yet. At the risk of sounding patronizing, this is how babies are made. Adolescence is the age when women would first become pregnant, and the ancient's concept of marriage…

I, and I assume most guys (and gals) in their puberty were horny most of the time, but my being a night owl I don't think factored into that at all. I studied much better at night, I was a lot more creative (music mostly) at night, and everything was more peaceful at night. I was horny too, I guess, but that was more of a 24/7 thing.

Same here. I don't think it's a stretch to say that increased teen sexual energy, inextricably bound to increased general energy, was a big part of that, whether sexually active or not. In fact sublimated sexual desire/energy can be extremely helpful in creative endeavors. It's the essence of creativity, the creation of a new human life is pretty hard to top power-wise.

I'm still a night owl, wired for very late.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#84

Post by jrnichols »

lordnacho wrote: post #53

This teenager sleep cycle thing is a bit of a revelation to me. I thought I just had bad habits, but when I was that age, I'd play games most of the evening, maybe do one or two bits of homework at 10om, and then possibly stay up to 1am with some essay that I'd procrastinate on for ages. I'd wake up at something like 7am and sleep on the train until I got into school, and then sleep after getting home at about 4pm fo…

I agree with this as well. No matter how hard I tried, I could not fall asleep early enough to get a decent nights sleep before having to be back at school in the morning. "Just go to bed earlier" and all of the other unhelpful suggestions lofted my way did not solve the problem. As a result, I suffered greatly with chronic fatigue throughout high school and beyond.

Had I been able to sleep properly during those years, I might be a completely different person now.

To this day, I cannot (and will not) work a Monday-Friday 8-5 job.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#85

Post by k__ »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #73
k__ wrote: post #58

I still sleep from 03:00 to 12:00 and I'm 33.

Similar here if left to my own devices, and I'm 40. I think we are a minority, though.

On the other hand, this drove me to self-employment, which brings its own benefits, besides sleeping in.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#86

Post by andrepd »

digitailor wrote: post #74

Well, no one else has said it, so I guess I drew the short straw. Teenagers are most likely wired for later nights because they have reached initial fertility. They will sneak off in the night to fool around, especially if they haven't had a child yet. At the risk of sounding patronizing, this is how babies are made. Adolescence is the age when women would first become pregnant, and the ancient's concept of marriage…

Aren't you simply making a baseless guess with nothing to back it up? Why would there be biological pressure to mate at night? I don't understand how you're so self assured (unless you read something on this which I haven't, in which case please share :)) If you don't, then I don't understand the purpose of phrases such as

>The article misses the point almost to the point of absurdity.

>I feel weird having to explain this.

>Academia concerns me sometimes.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#87

Post by wmeredith »

majos wrote: post #77
digitailor wrote: post #74

Well, no one else has said it, so I guess I drew the short straw. Teenagers are most likely wired for later nights because they have reached initial fertility. They will sneak off in the night to fool around, especially if they haven't had a child yet. At the risk of sounding patronizing, this is how babies are made. Adolescence is the age when women would first become pregnant, and the ancient's concept of marriage…

I'm not sure this is true. Yes, adolescence is when childbearing ability and the associated hormonal incentives start, but where is this "sex must happen at night" component coming from? If anything, I would guess that's a modern phenomenon being retrofitted onto the past.

It’s pure conjecture until the commenter posts some sources. Now I feel patronizing pointing it out, but you don’t have to stay up late to have sex. I think this is modern cultural norms being propped with pseudo science.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#88

Post by tokai »

foldr wrote: post #82
digitailor wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say visibility, permission avoidance, the excitement, and I'm sure there's more. Just like now, why would it have changed? For what specific reasons? Obviously spring and summer would be easier. I don't think that's retrofitting; I think we're continuing it still and the lack of recognition of that is confusing me. I'm positive they figured out how to have sex in the day as well when possible. But nomadic daytime…

You couldn't do much of anything at night with stone-age lighting technology. Sneaking around at night would be more likely to net you a tryst with a nearby tree branch or ditch than an exciting sexual encounter.

That's why the Moon has been a friend of lovers since dawn of time.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#89

Post by [deleted] »

vinay427 wrote: post #65
baxtr wrote: post #26

That’s probably a good reason to stick to wintertime in winter and not summertime (the EU decided to drop time ch ages 2x a year)

There isn't even a definite proposition yet for eliminating DST shifts. There is still a long way ahead for something like this to happen.

[deleted]

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep In

#90

Post by matwood »

coding123 wrote: post #7

Or you know have them go to bed at 10 instead of let the play video games until 2am.

I don't think you should be downvoted, but there are parts missing to your comment. Teenagers have more distractions than ever, so it's easier to stay awake later. Teenagers also do less exercise than they have in the past. Just going outside and running around with friends is often a thing of the past.

Whenever someone tells me they have a hard time going to sleep, my first question is always to ask if they exercise. I rarely stayed up past 10pm, much less past midnight as a teenager because my friends and I were getting up early to surf, ski, skate, play football, basketball, baseball, etc... By the time 10pm rolled around I was dead tired and ready to sleep. And on days I had to work after school, I got home around 10 and would literally pass out.

I know the environment is different, but my experiences make me cautious to say 'all teenagers' have different rhythms or want to stay up all night because of something biological.

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