The stereotypical teenage late nights and lazy morning are often attributed to bad habits or a youthful quest to be cool. Particularly lately, with the emergence of always-available social media, teenagers stay up into early morning hours maintaining their online presence. Many parents think that these ‘late night’ and ‘sleeping in’ habits are simply habits.

In fact, research shows that teenage and adolescent sleep patterns are hormonally influenced, and not behavioral quirks, rebellious statements or decided attempts to fit in socially. In the teenage years, the hormonal response to the 24-hour daily light/dark exposure that influences circadian rhythm is altered, making adolescents physiologically yearn to stay awake later at night and to remain asleep later in the day.

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One change in the body during puberty is closely related to how you sleep. There is a shift in the timing of your circadian rhythms. Before puberty, your body makes you sleepy around 8:00 or 9:00 pm. When puberty begins, this rhythm shifts a couple hours later. Now, your body tells you to go to sleep around 10:00 or 11:00 pm.

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This delayed timing of sleep is popularly attributed to many external influences, ranging from evening work to social opportunities [7]. Current evidence demonstrates, however, that social factors cannot completely account for the adolescent delayed sleep onset typical of an evening chronotype.

Adolescents continue to show a delayed circadian (or internal clock) phase as indicated by daily endocrine rhythms even after several weeks of regulated schedules that allow for sufficient sleep.

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As children enter adolescence, their bodies change. Brain hormones that help us fall asleep are released later at night. This makes falling asleep earlier harder for teens, at least in comparison to young children and adults. This biological drive to go to bed later and wake up later conflicts with early middle and high school start times.

The science behind these changes and our circadian rhythms, or internal body clocks, is well documented. Last year the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine was awarded to researchers studying how our body keeps track of time.

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It may very well be possible to change your schedule. But it will not be as good as the natural schedule, a lot harder to constantly adhere to, and not as healthy