Here’s an interesting note for parents of teens: the teenage body wants to sleep for nine hours each night, but due to shifting circadian rhythms (the internal process that regulates sleepiness and wakefulness in us) it can be almost impossible for kids to fall asleep early enough to get the full amount of sleep that they need.

If you have a teen zombie on your hands, encourage him or her to go to bed nine hours before he or she has to wake up.  While there may not be any sleep happening, by encouraging quiet activities like reading, you’re still promoting a kind of rest.  Discourage computers or television after this time; the light emitted from the screens mimics the light of the sun when it hits our brains, and ironically sends a “time to wake up!” message, making it even harder to fall asleep.

So all this explains why teens are addicted to sleeping until noon on the weekends!  Turns out they’re just catching up, and it’s not such a bad thing.