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Locked-Down Teens Stay Up All Night, Sleep All Day (wsj.com) 86

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Parents share a roof but see little of teenagers who have adopted vampire schedules; "Sometimes, my dad just wants me to wake up for no reason." From a report: Paul Cancellieri wakes up most mornings around 6 a.m. He makes himself breakfast. Then he says good night to his 16-year-old son, Cole. Cole, a high-school junior in Wake Forest, N.C., is one of the American teens who have gone nocturnal in the Covid-19 pandemic. While some schools require students to log on to live classes, many others are instead assigning work for students to complete on their own. With no daytime commitments, some teens prefer to stay up all night and sleep days. Some watch movies or chat with friends on similar schedules. Others do homework without their folks hovering. "I feel more relaxed, honestly," said Zach Zimmerman, a high-school senior in Mansfield, Texas. That was in April, when he was in the habit of going to bed around 10 a.m. and waking up in the late afternoon.

This month, Zach started taking an online college class that starts at 1 p.m., forcing him back to daylight hours. "When my college classes are over," he said, "I'll probably go back." Some parents welcome the daytime peace and quiet. They say it isn't worth arguing over bedtimes when teens are stuck at home and have no compelling reason to rise early. Gabrielle Powell, a 17-year-old in Escondido, Calif., spends her nights on Snapchat and video calls with friends. She plows through TV shows like "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness" and "All American," she said, and makes macaroni and cheese. Her post-dawn bedtime varies. She recently broke her routine for the Advanced Placement calculus exam, at the ungodly late 11 a.m. Gabrielle stayed awake the rest of the day before going to sleep, but she soon returned to the night shift.
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Locked-Down Teens Stay Up All Night, Sleep All Day More

Locked-Down Teens Stay Up All Night, Sleep All Day

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  • How come when I do this it isn't news? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @09:12AM (#60101810) Homepage

    New study shows teenagers like to sleep in? I hope they didn't pay a lot for this shocking information.

  • If left to my own devices, I'd be nocturnal, as well. And I'm 50. Unfortunately, the world doesn't operate that way.

    • Re:I've always preferred this kind of schedule (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Kjella ( 173770 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @09:50AM (#60101914) Homepage

      If left to my own devices, I'd be nocturnal, as well. And I'm 50. Unfortunately, the world doesn't operate that way.

      Or just keep going. I'm not really nocturnal, a 24 hour rhythm is just too short. Back when I was a student and could do whatever I found 24+12 was roughly my natural cycle of going to bed when I was tired and sleeping until I woke up by myself. I need the alarm to cut my sleep short so I'm sufficiently tired again in the evening to fall asleep. If I accidentally turn my clock off and sleep from like 11pm to 11am on a weekend the next night is fucked, I'll just lie there bored to death trying to get some rest. If I've partied hard and late Saturday I sometimes just decide to stay up, work Monday and then sleep.

      • Same with many (perhaps most) humans: https://www.theatlantic.com/he... [theatlantic.com]

        ..... researchers have found that people often slip into 48-hour sleep cycles when isolated from the environment.....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bosef1 ( 208943 )

        The 36 hour cycle is rough. I did that one time when I was working flat out on a special project at the office. I'm not clear that it was healthy, but it had a rhythm. The biggest problem was keeping synced up with everyone else who was living (and working) normal 24 hour days. Once the special project was resolved, I went back to a 24 hour schedule.

      • I have always found I need to be up and active for about 20 hours before I actually feel tired enough to sleep and about 10 hours of sleep to actually feel rested. I've skipped about 6 nights of sleep since lockdown started to keep synced with work hours. I'm much happier with that then forcing myself to go to bed and sleeping for a couple of hours and having to get back up.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by aix tom ( 902140 )

        Or just keep going. I'm not really nocturnal, a 24 hour rhythm is just too short. Back when I was a student and could do whatever I found 24+12 was roughly my natural cycle of going to bed when I was tired and sleeping until I woke up by myself.

        I'm 49, and whenever I have a few days without any fixes schedules I fall into a similar pattern. Maybe not quite so long, but I find 20h awake +10h sleep feels best for me.

    • Same here.

      When I take a week or more off from work, I tend to naturally revert to sleeping from 3 or 4 am until around 10 or 11am. Unfortunately, society doesn't work for us night owls, so I force myself into a daywalker schedule, and never really feel well rested.

      I can't wait to retire.

      When I was in high school, I had heard that much of Europe took siestas or long lunches that often included naps. So, businesses would be closed for a few hours in the middle of what we would call the work day, but then th

    • Same here. I'm in my late 30s and I've struggled all my life with having to conform to a 9-5 or 8-4 work day. I'd much prefer to stay up until 4 or 5 am and wake up between 10 and 12. I'm happier and more productive at night. I purposely seek out remote positions that would require me to work very late, but they are not easy to come by.

    • Sure it does. We're working remote, just relocate to Thailand. It's now night where you live, when it's day in the US.

      • That's why the best gig I ever had was one in San Diego, working from Europe. Was the only time that I was the first in the office every morning.

    • I'm 40, and I always preferred working late and very late shifts. After some self-analyzing, I came to the following conclusions:

      1. I am an introvert, meaning I don't crave being social. If I'm awake while everyone else sleeps, I feel better. I can be left to my own devices.
      2. My brain works best between 6 PM and 2 AM. Past that, it slows down a bit, but not enough to feel sleepy. By 2 AM, it switches to the two to three hours of relaxation.
      3. If I go to sleep early (10 PM to midnight), the following happen

    • Yeah, people didn't evolve to stay on the same schedules. Someone had to be up keeping watch at night, able to amuse themselves silently to avoid waking the rest of the tribe, and still contribute to the group. This is pretty much what nerds evolved for.
  • I'm turning 40 this year. 25 years ago, I used to go to bed at 5am and sleep until 2pm. Teenagers like to stay up late and sleep in. They like the independance and freedom that being up late brings. This isn't a covid-19 thing... this is a "at that point in my life" type of thing.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: Nothing new here (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Evtim ( 1022085 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @09:36AM (#60101864)

      Teens have some yet uncovered (in terms of biology) but easily measured need to sleep late in the morning. Regardless of well....anything such as culture, race, gender or some such....

      Experiments in the US have shown dramatic increase of school performance in combination with decreased rate of road accidents (for late teens that drive) when the start time at school was moved by just one hour later....

      Reference: 'Why do we sleep' by Matthew Walker.

      • Re: Nothing new here (Score:5, Interesting)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @09:57AM (#60101952)

        It's not really uncovered. When disassociated from cues (like daylight) human sleep/wake cycles drift. The average is longer than 24 hours, with lots of variation. Pueberty shifts your already variable circadian rhythms. It's called sleep phase delay.

        I'm not sure anyone really knows why, but it's not hard to imagine it would have been a competitive advantage for a group to have different members with different sleep schedules. Teens to watch for lions in the wee hours, older adults to take over the morning watch.

        • I'd really love to argue the point, but I can't. By 9 PM my sixty-something body is ready to think about bed. At 5:30 AM the eyes pop open, wait for the MarketPlace morning report at ten to six, then breakfast.

          I used to be able to sleep past 7 AM, really I did. But not now.

          The kid (really not any more) sleeps from 3 AM to 11, then joins me for lunch.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by RobinH ( 124750 )
        I've read that too. One of the things that defines being a teenager is more freedom coupled with lack of the part of the frontal lobe that can foresee consequences to actions. It's much more likely that teens stay up later because they don't have enough self control to make themselves go to bed on time, and the consequence of that action is that they're tired in the morning, or "need to sleep later." Teens with parents who make their kid go to bed at 9:30 probably have no problem getting up at 6:00 am.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Xenx ( 2211586 )
          Except, studies show that you're wrong... or at the very least your idea is in addition to what we know. We don't know the why of it, but we know the fact of it.

      • I'm way past my teenage years (I have teenage kids now) and yet I still feel the same need - I sleep do much better in the morning than I do at night. I am more productive at night than during the day. Have been nocturnal like this since I was a teen. Early morning schedules screw with my mood and productivity big time. Being nocturnal in the US does help working with teams in Asia and Europe.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I blame the influence of early 90's happy hardcore/nightcore remixes. To quote one of them: "I'm a raver and it feels okay. I dance all night and I sleep all day."

  • I'm 43 (Score:4, Informative)

    by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @09:32AM (#60101856)
    And much prefer to work this way. I'm more productive when I'm not disturbed and there aren't other people around me.
  • Charles Bukowski[19] Fidel Castro[20] Michael Chabon[21] Winston Churchill[22] Bob Dylan[21] Gustave Flaubert[21] Glenn Gould[21] Samuel Johnson[21] Carl Jung[23] Franz Kafka[21] Fran Lebowitz[24] H. P. Lovecraft[25] Marilyn Manson[26] Mao Zedong[27] Frank Meyer[28] Barack Obama[29] Prince[30] Marcel Proust[21] George Sand[21] Joseph Stalin[31] Hunter S. Thompson[32] J. R. R. Tolkien[33] Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec[21]

  • win-win (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tomahawk ( 1343 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @09:41AM (#60101882) Homepage

    I'm sure a lot of parents are loving this. They get most of the day with no teenagers around, but still share some time with them in the evenings.

    The teenagers are also getting most of the night with no parents around, but still get to share some time with them.

    Overall it's a win-win.

    • Yup and for those of us with limited bandwidth and working remotely, we don't need draconian traffic shaping rules to get a decent connection for remote desktop work, teams calls, etc.

      I can tell when the kids get up - things get jittery. Then I run wondershaper and things are all better.

    • Overall it's a win-win.

      My dad used to regale me with the age old wisdom of, "the early bird gets the worm." The reality I've found is that the person with nobody else around gets more code written, and the bird is probably prematurely aging from excessive stress.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        nobody else around gets more code written

        Yup. I used to arrive at work at 6:00AM to get my serious coding done. Out by 2:00PM while there is daylight left to enjoy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      And then, parents complain about the lack of quality family times. :/

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • There's "nightlife" of a city, "the night is young" (said at some ungodly hour)

  • Another observation (Score:5, Funny)

    by Xenna ( 37238 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @10:15AM (#60102014)

    I think my 14yo is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. He goes to sleep when I (programmatically) turn the WIFI off at 10pm and wakes up when I turn it on again at 7am. I swear it's true!

    He swears his dad is a black-hat hacker.

    • Re: Another observation (Score:4, Funny)

      by fullgandoo ( 1188759 ) on Monday May 25, 2020 @10:58AM (#60102180)
      EMR sensitivity is a thing. Watch the Netflix documentary "Better Call Saul!"
    • I think he's just sensitive to the Internet. Can't watch Netflix when the WiFi's down
    • I will do you one better. My 14yo used to erupt into a tirade when I used to do that, now he gets off the computer, comes in to the room, talks to me for a bit then goes to bed.

      Strange times, my friend, strange times.

  • They'd better have some really good blackout curtains on their windows. Light (both artificial and daylight) interferes with melatonin and sleep cycles. They might think they are getting sleep during the day, but perhaps it's not the right kind of sleep with the requisite REM intervals.

    Screwing around with sleep cycles is not something that I'd like to try. I'm not sure if the cause/effect has been established, but one thing associated with dementia later in life is Sundowning [wikipedia.org], becoming more active later i

    • The population is actually split about 50/50 into people who are better at night and people who are better during the day. Sundowning is people better at the day staying up late, the same thing happens to night owls when forced to be awake during the day (wherein "forced" includes "because you have to be to work or go to school.") People evolved in tribes wherein some always had to be awake to stand guard, while still contributing to the group, and before there was enough governmental structure to say "ok

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        Sundowning is people better at the day staying up late, the same thing happens to night owls when forced to be awake during the day

        No. It is a symptom (or cause) of dementia. There is no equivalent 'people suffering from debilitating loss of mental faculties' that correlates with early risers.

        those inclinations got hard-coded into people

        And that would be really sad if there is no way to retrain ones self from a behavior that leads to or may be correlated with diminishing mental capacity later in life. Some people may be predisposed to be the night watchmen. But when their time comes and we have to leave them on an ice floe lest they disrupt village life, it will be a loss.

  • So like always? (Score:3)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Monday May 25, 2020 @10:50AM (#60102156)

    Well then, nothing to see. Move along.

  • Our daughter's iphone has the usual school ScreenTime settings enabled as if she were physically in school. She's been in several video meetings for her class and been only one of two or three students there with the teacher at 9:00 AM.

    It's the parents' fault.

  • During graduate school, I went to classes during the day then came home and sleep until midnight. I'd then wake up refreshed and do my work for 3-4 hours before another morning nap. Worked great.
    Lots of evidence in historical record that the "natural" sleep cycle before electric lights, etc. was go to bed early, wake up for a few hours in the middle of the night then go back to sleep again.
    Leave the teenagers alone. They are happy finding their own sleep pattern.

  • This is a surprise? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

    Locked-Down Teens Stay Up All Night, Sleep All Day

    I don't know about you guys, but when I was 16, this is exactly what I did and there was no "lockdown".

    Now, as an adult, I find that my sleep-wake cycle synchronizes with my dog's and my cat's. The dog wakes up at 5:30am and licks my face until I get up and walk her. The cat goes to sleep at 10:30pm in my lap while I'm watching TV and it puts me to sleep like a handful of barbiturates.

  • When I was a teenager back in the early 80's my friends and I during the summer months would stay up all night, sleep until noon, then hit the river to go skiing or up the bay to Cedar Point. I hardly saw my parents back then as well during non-school months. I guess the main difference is that now teenagers spend their awake hours in a room on a computer or cell phone. We spent it outside doing things.

  • As observed previously, this works out as a nicely as a compromise in a new space-sharing paradigm...

    I wonder if there is a "formula" predicting if/when this will happen for a given individual?
    Perhaps it starts with one individual with high social capital with a nocturnal bent, and everyone migrates to that schedule to keep in touch (via FOMO)?
    What family situations contribute? Bored parent avoiding real work by "helping" the student. Newly unemployed parent who is bored and helping? Or one doing many proj

  • Isn't this what cats do. They rotate their waking hours to avoiding sharing territory with other cats.

  • Socrates 469-399 B.C. (Score:3, Informative)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Monday May 25, 2020 @01:41PM (#60102872)

    "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

    "...and they Stay Up All Night, Sleep All Day. "

  • Teens are acting like teens.

    Why is this even news?

  • I did this 36 years ago, FFS.

    I believe it is part and parcel of your body growing from adolescence into adulthood.
    Given that in a year or two, you grow a foot taller at least, your genitals change/you start growing hair where there was none before AND if studies are correct, your brain undergoes a huge amount of change, is it any wonder you sleep more?

    What self respecting teenager would want to be awake during the day, when, during these crazy changes, all they get is a constant barrage of complaints.

    Couple

  • Kids are just getting in shape for the only job that will exist in America in the future: telecommuting to Asia for less than US minimum wage.

  • In other words, nothing has changed due to Covid-19 lockdowns.

  • Respectfully, but adults can be a bunch of hypocrites!

    I'm 50 now, but I can very much remember my teenage years... Half the teachers couldn't teach. They couldn't teach you what porn was even if they would've had access to the Internet back then. But the teachers that could actually make their lessons interesting, well guess what, from them you did learn. Still, they all wanted you to pass tests for their satisfaction (not yours!) and each time these tests came up it sucked the fun out of life.

    It explains i

  • Uh, yeah, I did this in the 80s and 90s as a pre-teen and teen, during the summer months. Hell, even into college it wasn't unusual. It's a little harder now, though weekends are a wildcard (this Memorial Day weekend, I think the earliest I went to sleep was about 6am). It's a bit easier these days, with the internet, but between dialup and writing code back then (with whatever stations didn't go off the air at night), it was certainly possible to keep occupied.

  • He's trying to minimize the time during the day that he has to deal with my mother.
  • For me, that sort of inverted sleep cycle has always been closely associated with bouts of severe depression. Most likely to be twin effects from a single cause - not having anything to do or anywhere to be. The activities listed closely mirror my list of "things to do while suffering a bout of severe MDD".

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