Over the last three decades, there has been tremendous growth in our understanding of adolescents' sleep-wake patterns, circadian timing, underlying bioregulatory processes, and environmental factors and constraints, as well as the consequences of insufficient sleep for adolescents' brains, bodies, and behavior. Despite these scientific advances, however, minimal progress has been made in increasing the number of adolescents who are regularly obtaining adequate sleep, with some evidence even suggesting a decline in adolescent sleep. Numerous factors have been identified at the individual, family, and societal levels that contribute to the quality, timing, and duration of adolescent sleep. To date, however, only one modifiable, policy-level countermeasure has been identified as directly contributing to adolescent sleep deprivation: early school start times. School start times are currently being debated in school districts across the United States and in other countries as well.
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