Carskadon, M. A. (2011). Sleep in adolescents: The perfect storm. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 58(3), 637-47.
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Abstract

The perfect storm metaphor applies to sleep patterns of adolescents in the sense that developmental trajectories of biopsychosocial factors conspire to limit the quantity of sleep for many adolescents resulting in a number of negative consequences. A reduction in sleep amount from late childhood through the second decade has long been known; however, the weight of current evidence holds that sleep need does not decline across this span. Nevertheless, parents, pediatricians, and school teachers, it seems, long assumed that this sleep decline was an inevitable part of growing up and a normative expectation. We shall see below that the loss of sleep through adolescence is not driven by lower need for sleep but arises from a convergence of biological, psychological, and socio-cultural influences.

Keywords

Adolescence, circadian rhythms, sleep regulation, homeostatic pressure, melatonin, mood

MeSH Terms
    Adolescent
    Adolescent Development*
    Affect/physiology*
    Circadian Rhythm/physiology*
    Humans
    Sleep/physiology*