Tell me: If you go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 7am every day, and then change time zones, do you magically go to bed at the new 11pm and wake up at the new 7am?
No, of course not.
Because the times you get tired and wake up have nothing to do with an arbitrary number on the wall.
> He says night workers are exposed to low light levels during the overnight shift, but as they encounter bright natural light on the journey home, their internal clocks lock on to the normal light-dark pattern that day shift workers are on. “So, you constantly have to override this sort of biological drive from the clock saying you should be asleep.”
> A lack of sunlight might stop a part of the brain called the hypothalamus working properly, which may affect the production of melatonin, serotonin, and the body's circadian rhythms.
> Our circadian pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the hypothalamus, is entrained to the 24-hour solar day via a pathway from the retina and synchronises our internal biological rhythms. Rhythmic variations in ambient illumination impact behaviours such as rest during sleep and activity during wakefulness as well as their underlying biological processes.
I guess the doctors quoted in these articles didn't work in multiple timezones then.
I'm not arguing that the sun isn't good for you or that bright lights don't make you feel of more awake. Of course they do.
My argument is that you can override this with good sleep hygiene, which teenagers don't have. You have to fix the hygiene problem, not the clock problem. They are trying to fix the symptoms and not the cause.
However, the ironic thing is you are arguing for teenagers to wake up early and NOT sleep in. It's the long wavelengths of light at sunrise and sunset that reset your circadian rhythm:
> Researchers said the wavelengths at sunrise and sunset have the biggest impact to brain centers that regulate our circadian clock and our mood and alertness
> I'm not arguing that the sun isn't good for you or that bright lights don't make you feel of more awake. Of course they do.
Shifting your arguments to different topics is only fooling yourself. You bring up points, which are refuted, then you claim it has nothing to do with the topic. That's disingenuous. Now you can look back and figure out where you've misstated the facts and you want to reset the conversation. Let's do that.
> My argument is that you can override this with good sleep hygiene
That's not an argument. That's a fact everyone agrees on.
> You have to fix the hygiene problem, not the clock problem.
This strategy that has been pursued for decades (and you have continued to parrot) is an unmitigated failure. There is an acute statistical academic penalty for setting the arbitrary school "early classes" starting time around ~6-7am^. This is primarily used by students who are either trying to catch up due to poor past performance or to get ahead by those pushing the upper bounds. There is a small cadre of students for which this schedule aligns with parental obligations, but it has been shrinking for decades. Due to the pareto distribution, you can guess who makes up the largest demographic.
> They are trying to fix the symptoms and not the cause.
Time to explore other strategies, as that's been a failure for a host of reasons. Let's start with the realities of being an adult vs child->young adult (youngling, in aggregate).
Adults manage a stable rhythm via self-training as part of a long term strategy that dovetails with stable biological development - which is negatively affected by other long-term changes like having children, ie mommy brain. Parents have to get up earlier than the earliest classes to prepare for transport. School transportation schedule tend to serve the median start time, not the boundary, if you didn't notice.
Younglings have increasing autonomy, hyperactive metabolism and erratic hormones. They have poor (or none) training for what is likely a temporary time in their life, along with the other stresses on themselves and the family.
The symptoms are the problem because you cannot address the cause. No amount of PSAs are going to help, because it's been tried and failed. Like most pundits, standing along the side and claiming "that won't work" or "we aren't doing X enough!" rather than trying to take a different action to generate new data, is compounding the failures.
^My parents and I had me in early classes for a few months before we communally agreed to stop. It wasn't effective learning for anyone in the classes, to say the least.
No, of course not.
Because the times you get tired and wake up have nothing to do with an arbitrary number on the wall.