Sleep Clinic Phone Number, More About Sleepy Teens
March 28, 2001--
Primary Children's Sleep Center says a third of all its patients now are teens and adolescents desperately trying to modify their sleep/wake cycle.
It's part of a national pattern sleep experts say has reached crisis proportions.
Here's the story from Science Specialist Ed Yeates.
Sleep deprived teens and adolescents are not only falling asleep in school - but behind the wheel as well.
Sleep experts say the condition called delayed sleep phase is more risky for teens because when they don't get enough sleep - they take on a different personality.
KATHLEE PFEFFER, M.D., INTERMOUNTAIN PEDIATRIC SLEEP PROGRAM: "TEENAGERS IN PARTICULAR WHEN THEY ARE SLEEP DEPRIVED AND THEY'RE DRIVING - AND THIS HAS BEEN LOOKED AT -THEY GET MORE STRESSED - WE ALL DO THIS - BUT TEENS MORE SO - THEY GET MORE STRESSED, THEY GET MORE IMPATIENT AND THEY DRIVE FASTER."
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "PRIMARY CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER IS CURRENTLY TREATING 200 TEENAGERS PER YEAR. PART OF THEIR THERAPY INCLUDES THIS LIGHT BOX. WHEN THEY GET UP IN THE MORNING, THEY TURN IT ON AND IT RESETS THE BODY CLOCK."
The specially designed light is identical to the sun at noon. For patients like 19-year-old Michael Ord, the light establishes a new sleep/wake cycle. He goes to bed at ten - and is up at six.
Michael remembers what it was like in junior high and high school before treatment began.
MICHALE ORD: "WHEN I FINALLY DID GO TO BED I WOULD BE UP HOURS TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP. I WOULD LITERALLY LAY ON MY BED FOR HOURS TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP."
During the day, he just floated around - tired - not much fun around his peers.
MICHAEL ORD: "I WAS DROUSY ALL DAY. I HAD TROUBLE STAYING AWAKE IN CLASSES. COULDN'T CONCENTRATE. IT WAS REALLY DIFFICULT."
But after two weeks of treatment, that's all changed now. Michael is a different person. His mood is better. And his concentration on the job has improved 100 percent.
Several years ago, Minnesota high schools pushed their starting times later in the day - to accomodate the sleep-wake cycles of teenagers who traditionally are night owls - not morning larks. What does the data now show?
DR. PFEFFER: "THE HALLWAYS ARE CALMER. THEY HAVE LESS FIGHTS, LESS DEPRESSION, LESS ROWDINESS. THE KIDS LOVE IT."
Dr. Pfeffer says new studies show teens and adolescents actually need 9 and a half hours of sleep.
