Myth: You can get more sleep by going to sleep earlier

Myth

Nearly all teenagers hear about this regularly from parents and teachers: "Go to sleep earlier! No wonder you can't get up at 10 am if you play games till 3 am"

Fact

For a tired adult, after a busy day that starts with an alarm clock or stress, the myth seems like natural wisdom. When they show some discipline and go to sleep early, they will easily fall asleep like a log and get more (not so perfectly refreshing) sleep.

Little do they realize that a teenage body clock is shifted well enough to make early sleep unworkable or harmful. If he is lucky, the teenager will toss and turn for a long while in bed, suffer the pain of insomnia, and fall asleep even later. On a bad day, the same kid may fall asleep, wake up prematurely, and ruin the entire night. He may be unable to fall asleep again. More likely, he will fall asleep just right before the time to get blasted by an alarm to rush for school.

Eearly school start for teenagers is criminal

School start times must change. See also: Curing DSPS and insomnia

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