why is it that....

[citygirlsmom]

<p>I can go to bed at the same time as my Ds, and yet get up 5 hours earlier and function fine on 5 hours of sleep and they can’t on more 10</p>

<p>and I am double their age</p>

[corranged]

<p>It’s because you’re more than double their age. Teenagers need just over nine hours of sleep a night. If they’re only getting seven during the week, they’ll probably sleep a couple hours later on the weekends to “catch up.” </p>

<p>The other part just depends on the person. Most adults can’t function on five hours of sleep a night. Different bodies work differently.</p>

[scansmom]

<p>The amount of sleep a person or animal needs also has a lot to do with their body size as well as age; smaller bodies need more sleep because they have a higher metabolism which generates chemicals that destroy body cells faster and so they need more sleep to rebuild and repair these cells. So infants need 16 or more hrs, teens need 9-10 hrs, and most adults need 7-8 hrs. In comparison, elephants only need about 3 hrs due to their larger size.</p>

[mini]

<p>Your body-mind recognizes that your time on earth is growing shorter, and so doesn’t want to waste it on sleep.</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p>mini, you are probably the most accurate, and we adults have no choice</p>

<p>I was doing exactly the same work, for the same # of hours for three days as my Ds, and yet I am less cranky, able to move better, etc on half the sleep</p>

<p>I do find if my Ds sleep reallly long, they are actually worse off that day than if they slept about 8 hours, they are moodier, much slower to start really functioning and slower on the uptake, shifting from job to job, and getting ready, if they had 8 hours, they move better all around</p>

<p>interesting stuff</p>

[corranged]

<p>From:
<a href=“http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sleep/sleep_intro.htm[/url]”>http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sleep/sleep_intro.htm&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.webmd.com/content/article/62/71838.htm[/url]”>Sleep problems - WebMD;
<a href=“Parents (for Parents) - Nemours KidsHealth”>How Much Sleep Do I Need? (for Teens) - Nemours KidsHealth;

<p>Why teens sleep differently than adults:

Until recently, teens were often given a bad rap for staying up late, oversleeping for school, and falling asleep in class. But recent studies show that adolescent sleep patterns actually differ from those of adults or kids.</p>

<p>These studies show that during the teen years, the body’s circadian rhythm (sort of like an internal biological clock) is temporarily reset, telling a person to fall asleep later and wake up later. This change in the circadian rhythm seems to be due to the fact that the brain hormone melatonin is produced later at night for teens than it is for kids and adults. This can make it harder for teens to fall asleep early.

</p>

<p>How much sleep different people need:

There are so-called short-sleepers and long-sleepers – those who need as little as five and a half hours to as much as about nine and a half hours.</p>

<p>How much sleep you require depends on several factors including:</p>

<pre><code>* Your inherited genetic need

• Your sleep hygiene (those daily activities you control, from drinking coffee or alcohol to smoking and exercise)
• The quality of your sleep
• Your 24-hour daily cycle known as the circadian rhythm

The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Infants generally require about 16 hours a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day.

</code></pre>

<p>How to tell if you need more sleep:

How much sleep do you get – do you have a sleep debt? Do this simple test: Starting on a Sunday, do not drink alcohol or caffeine; do not smoke; go to sleep about the same time every night; and get an uninterrupted seven to eight hours of sleep for the next six nights. Then, on Saturday morning, sleep in. See how long your body will let you sleep. If you sleep longer than you did during the week – then you have a sleep debt. So you should consider getting more sleep each night to replenish that sleep debt.

</p>

<p>Let your older teen decide how much sleep he needs for himself. Sleep deprivation can cause more than crankiness:

The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration estimates that 1,500 people are killed every year in crashes caused by drivers between the ages of 15 and 24 who are simply tired. (More than half of the people who cause crashes because they fall asleep at the wheel are under the age of 26.)

Sleep-deprived people who are tested by using a driving simulator or by performing a hand-eye coordination task perform as badly as or worse than those who are intoxicated.

</p>