Neuroscience increasingly confirms what Indigenous knowledge keepers have long understood: young people’s biological clocks are intricate systems responding to environmental and psychological pressures. When teenagers naturally gravitate toward later sleep schedules, they’re not being rebellious—they’re experiencing neurological shifts that profoundly shape decision-making and impulse control.
Understanding these patterns matters deeply for supporting youth wellness. By recognizing that sleep preferences emerge from complex neurological and developmental processes, we can design more compassionate interventions that honor individual differences. Educators, parents, and mental health professionals who approach teenage sleep variations with curiosity instead of judgment create pathways for healthier emotional development and self-understanding.
Teenagers who are night owls appear to be more self-destructively impulsive, a new study says. Teens who prefer to sleep and wake later are more impulsive than “early bird” teenagers, researchers are scheduled to report at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Academy…
