As school starts and routines return to "normal," many adolescents will struggle with early mornings after a summer of sleeping in and irregular holiday schedules. Throughout the school year, pupils count down to the weekend, hoping to recover the hours of sleep lost during the week — a pattern researchers call 'social jet lag'.
It is precisely the ‘social jet lag’ that might be negatively affecting young people’s mental health, a new study by the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom found. And with biological sleep changes occurring in adolescence, addressing youths’ sleep needs and even reconsidering school start times might be a way forward, researchers say.
