The Consequences of Sleep Loss

As a researcher and the mother of a teenage son, Wendy Troxel is able to consider various perspectives throughout her talk on sleep, in which she argues that school days should start later in order for students to truly get the most out of what they're learning, and to allow for their brains to properly develop.

She starts out by comically telling her audience of how difficult it can be to get her son out of bed in the mornings, as well as the tactics that some of her friends have resorted to -- such as yelling "fire." Although many parents say that their children get the recommended 8 hours of sleep, Troxel claims that this is the bare minimum that growing teens should be getting in order to properly develop.

As many schools within the US have start times of 7am or earlier, they don't give teens the chance to get the hours of rest that they need. As a result, many haven't properly developed their brains -- resulting in a lack of concentration, and exhaustion. In addition, Troxel exposes the link between drug addiction and suicide in her lack of sleep. With this, she campaigns for schools to listen to research, and cater to the teens they serve by starting later in the day.