Sleep pattern Late-rising owls have a hard time at school

In Germany, the school usually starts at eight o'clock in the morning. The individual biorhythm of young people is ignored. The so-called "owls", ie people who can stand up harder in the morning, are at a disadvantage. Experts are committed to a later school start.

Dead tired in the first lesson
During the first school lesson, many teenagers are sitting dead tired in the classroom. Because many of the 12 to 20-year-olds are according to a study so-called "owls", reports the news agency dpa. "Owls" are evening types that stay active longer at night and reach their peak performance in the afternoon or evening. In the morning they are more difficult to get out of bed. Opposite them is the sleep type of "larks": they wake up early in the morning and reach their most active phase relatively early in the day. The study by a German-Italian research team concludes that those who achieve their highest performance in the afternoon or evening have a harder time at school.

Owls have a hard time. Picture: katarinagondova - fotolia

Early birds perform better at school
The scientists of the University of Bologna (Psychology) and the Heidelberg University of Education (Biology) published their results in the renowned journal "Chronobiology International". For their study, the researchers analyzed 31 studies involving more than 27,300 participants. They wanted to find out what effect the different sleep types have on academic performance. "We have all of the world's studies on the subject spotted and subjected to a meta-analysis," said Professor Christoph Randler in a press release of the University of Education Heidelberg. It turned out that the evening types on all continents perform worse academic achievements than early risers.

Students have more freedom
In addition, the scientists announced that for the first time it could be proven that this effect is more pronounced in adolescents than in students. The researchers assume that this has something to do with adolescents having to start school early, while students have some freedom in their daily schedules. According to Randler, the latter can learn more in line with their biorhythm. To make matters worse, young people between the ages of 12 and 20 experience a strong evening or night orientation. And many of them have enormous sleep problems. For example, Norwegian researchers have recently found in a study that adolescents sleep problems are widespread through screens - whether television, computer, smartphone or game console.

Later start of school required
According to the scientists of the current study, "owls" are clearly in the majority. Nevertheless, the school is still tailored to "larks" with their early lesson. That penalizes the "owls". Randler explained, "The evening types are as intelligent as early risers, they only have to check their performance at the" wrong "time." As a consequence of their work, the international research team is calling for starting school at least at seventh grade. Randler said: "9 o'clock, as many scientists agree, would be a good time." (Ad)

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