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Let Teenagers Sleep

scientificamerican.com

171–180 of 497 posts

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#171
post #130

Pet peeve of mine: some older adults are proud that they get up early. And that’s OK in isolation. The problem though is that older adults rule society moreso than younger adults, and certainly compared to teenagers. So for many older adults it feels natural to go to bed early and to get up early. But then we as a society confuse that with universal “good behavior”/good character, so everyone has to dance to that tun…

We have ceded far too much power to the morning people.

We change our clocks every year for the night owls.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#172
post #130

Pet peeve of mine: some older adults are proud that they get up early. And that’s OK in isolation. The problem though is that older adults rule society moreso than younger adults, and certainly compared to teenagers. So for many older adults it feels natural to go to bed early and to get up early. But then we as a society confuse that with universal “good behavior”/good character, so everyone has to dance to that tun…

We have ceded far too much power to the morning people.

First mover advantage.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#173
post #82

As a teenager I was diagnosed with "ADD". Very intelligent, but unable to focus or complete assignments. My life habits were carb heavy unhealthy food (from the cafeteria), soda, lack of sleep due to long school commute, not much exercise As an adult, I eat no carbs, all meat and vegetables, I work from home and sleep in as far as I need every night. My thinking is laser sharp. They tried to medicate me with all sort…

> As an adult, I eat no carbs, all meat and vegetables This is contradictory. Vegetables are high in carbohydrates as a percentage of their calories.

Low carb doesn't mean you can't eat food with carbs, it means most of your diet is protein and fat, and you restrict carbohydrate consumption. He can have a low carbohydrate diet while eating vegetables, as long as he eats less vegetables than meat.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please have him do a sleep study. It turned out that I had undiagnosed narcolepsy for decades. Sleeping 15 hours is exactly what I used to do. It's a low cost high return kind of thing. If I'd had early diagnosis, I wouldn't have been fired due to getting jobs that really, really wanted my butt in a chair at exactly 9am. ( https://twitter.com/theshawwn/status/1392213804684038150 ) That said, the rate of narcolepsy is…

Add sleep apnea to that. I don't have it myself, but some of my friends had a night-and-day difference in their life as a result of getting their obstructive sleep apnea treated. Significant weight loss, depression gone, no headaches, doing well in life instead of struggling every day.

One of my friends effectively dropped out of university due to sleep apnea. He just wouldn't be able to get up for lectures or engineering labs, or be so out of it he had difficulty absorbing the material. A shame as he was a sharp guy, and has struggled with things in the decade since due to various knock-on reasons.

We used to laugh about how loud he snored echoing through the house - but looking back this was more a symptom of a medical issue than a joke.

It's a failure of modern western society IMHO where we see people actually needing sleep as "lazy", rather than a requirement to actually be their best.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#175

The real blame for early high school is extra-curricular sports. Basketball, Football, etc. For those sports to thrive, teams need to practice, in order for practice to be efficient, it needs to be at least an hour. So 2 hours are allocated (suit up, practice, suit down). In order for children to be able to commit to 2 hours extra of their time BEFORE their parents get home (5pm), class would have to end by 3pm. Now,…

Same principle but it was different in my schools system. High school starts 30 minutes after elementary and middle school.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#176
post #23
post #7

One big reason this shift isn't happening is that it creates coordination problems: for many families, everyone leaves for school at the same time, so if you move grade 9 forward an hour, you have to do the same with grade 4 to get any benefit; the 9th grader is taking the 4th grader to school. That problem stopped this shift dead recently where I live.

This showcases other problems with American society. With poor social support structures and urban design, kids can't simply walk to and from school, take public transportation, or ride school provided transportation to remove parents being chauffeurs.

Got any citations to back that up? I remember everyone in high school in Philadelphia commuting via public transit. And what do you meant can't walk to school? The whole city is a grid, completely covered with sidewalks. Go pull up an online map if you've never seen it before. The only thing impeding people from walking everywhere is the fear of getting mugged or worse in certain neighborhoods.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#177

The real blame for early high school is extra-curricular sports. Basketball, Football, etc. For those sports to thrive, teams need to practice, in order for practice to be efficient, it needs to be at least an hour. So 2 hours are allocated (suit up, practice, suit down). In order for children to be able to commit to 2 hours extra of their time BEFORE their parents get home (5pm), class would have to end by 3pm. Now,…

> In order for children to be able to commit to 2 hours extra of their time BEFORE their parents get home (5pm), class would have to end by 3pm Why would they need to be able to complete their sports before their parents get home?

It was probably more accurate to say before their parents get off.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#178

Its a common misconception that the goal of Education System is to educate. It's not, and the system will never accept 'improvements' that run contrary to it's purpose. In actuality education system serves four purposes: One: make both parents avaliable for the job market. For that it must supervise children during work hours, to make sure they aren't getting in trouble, drugs, or worst of all, into politics and prot…

I dunno man, pre-civilisation and education wasn't exactly much fun either. I'd rather be a part of the system that basically gives us everything from food to iPhones and the Internet than fight against it (while avoiding predators in the wild).

This is not to say that education, especially for boys and young men couldn't be made considerably better.

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#179

Its a common misconception that the goal of Education System is to educate. It's not, and the system will never accept 'improvements' that run contrary to it's purpose. In actuality education system serves four purposes: One: make both parents avaliable for the job market. For that it must supervise children during work hours, to make sure they aren't getting in trouble, drugs, or worst of all, into politics and prot…

There should be two categorizations for students: highly creative students should be placed on a different path to adulthood, everybody else could use the current system. Highly creative people are more likely to be successful dropouts.

To force highly creative people into this routine, is dictatorship of the mind. That's how it was for me.

Edit: I upset the academics :)

Re: Let Teenagers Sleep

#180

As a teenager I was diagnosed with "ADD". Very intelligent, but unable to focus or complete assignments. My life habits were carb heavy unhealthy food (from the cafeteria), soda, lack of sleep due to long school commute, not much exercise As an adult, I eat no carbs, all meat and vegetables, I work from home and sleep in as far as I need every night. My thinking is laser sharp. They tried to medicate me with all sort…

Weird. My guidance councillor did the same. Well, I wasn’t accepted to a school at the point in which they encouraged me to settle for less, but it was a very heartfelt “don’t even try”. I left the room very confused and upset. Went in with ambition and excitement about my future and left feeling like I must be a complete idiot. I remember her saying “Let’s focus on being realistic. You aren’t actually going to do th…

Was this meeting before lunch? Maybe she was just hungry. As terrifying as that is.
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