WAAAAAKE Up Now!
Turns out teens have so much trouble getting enough sleep because their melatonin levels are lower than in childhood, and when your kid tells you he just can't fall asleep early enough to get up on time, believe him. It's true, Dr. Max Gomez says on CBS TV New York. It's biology. Of course, I'm watching this while trying to wake up my son from a sleep that resembles hibernation (one morning I just couldn't, no amount of shaking his arm, yelling or threats worked, though I didn't try the one others swear by, cold water). But it turns out that kids who are home-schooled and usually wake 20 minutes AFTER most schools have started, do better. These kids, on average, Dr. Gomez says, sleep 90 more minutes than kids who go to regular schools, So what? Home-schooled kids supposedly do better -- graduating at higher rates, getting better grades and ready to jump into lessons shortly after they wake up, while other kids can take up to two hours to start functioni...