Should i sleep1/8/2024 ![]() In other words, in the days of primeval humans, adolescents might have used this trait to compete with older alpha males and females who slept earlier, given that heightened sexual activity tends toward “eveningness” in animals as well as men and women today. “By staying up later, they’re not competing with parents for reproductive success, which gives an advantage.” ![]() “The evolutionary perspective has been that sleep-phase delay allows adolescents to pursue autonomy, and animal researchers put it towards competition for mates,” Hasler said. This same pattern holds in other mammals. Then around the age of 20, our schedules creep back again toward being morning larks. During this time, Hasler said, it takes longer to fill the sleep drive, feel tired and want sleep.Ĭhildren get sleepy soon after sunset, but most teens - especially boys - prefer to stay awake about three hours longer and sleep in later the next day. Puberty delays the circadian clock, meaning teens are naturally wired to stay up later. The evening lull in your circadian clock should ideally sync with a full sleep drive bucket, allowing you to fall asleep comfortably.Įnter puberty. External factors like light exposure and physical activity determine when this rollercoaster peaks - for most people that’s right after waking and during the late afternoon - and when it hits sluggish low-points - 1 p.m. This timekeeping pocket of 20,000 neurons cycles your blood pressure, body temperature and sleep hormones like melatonin throughout the day to control alertness and drowsiness. “This rhythm would be present even if we lived in a cave,” said Kelly Glazer Baron, a clinical health psychologist at Northwestern University, who says that our circadian clocks are governed by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Your circadian rhythm, on other hand, is a roller coaster that regulates your alertness and grogginess during the day. Sleep empties the bucket, leaving you fresh, unburdened and alert in the morning. “Sleep drive accumulates the longer you’re awake, and then dissipates with sleep,” said psychologist Brant Hasler of the University of Pittsburgh, who studies how sleep and circadian rhythms influence reward seeking. The longer that we stay awake, the more that the bucket fills, until our bodies succumb and demand sleep. We wake up to an empty bucket that gradually fills as we perform our daily duties. Imagine carrying a bucket of water throughout the day. Sleep drive alerts the body to when it needs sleep. But as we age, less sleep is required, and we settle into a nighttime schedule that is controlled by two biological processes: our homeostatic sleep drive and our circadian rhythm. When we’re newborns, we need oodles of sleep, as much as 17 hours in chunks spread throughout the day. Is this true though? Does waking early improve productivity? Is there a downside to shifting the sleep schedule from weekday to weekend? Would we be better off if we could switch our sleep schedule preference, known as our chronotype? PBS NewsHour tracked down two sleep experts to explain the science of sleep.ĭid sleeping in evolve to give teens a sexual edge? I’ve heard them hoot, “If only I could go to bed early and wake up early. ![]() Brunch invitations are a logistical quagmire do you starve yourself for hours or eat breakfast twice in one morning? Maybe you’ve experienced this too? Your boyfriend/girlfriend/life partner/spouse groans as you roll out of bed at the crack of dawn, eager to climb mountains. Almost every day, since I was a teen, regardless of whether it’s a weekday, weekend or holiday, I wake up at 6 a.m.Īs an early bird, I admit to some delusions of morning grandeur - “Let’s wake up early Saturday and climb a mountain!” - but being a morning lark has proved annoying to others in my life, particularly those who function by “catching up” on sleep over the weekends. I hate sleeping in, but that’s mainly because I can’t.
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