I am a 14-year-old living in South Korea. Since I attend an online school based on American education, I have to stay up late, often until 4 AM, to attend classes according to American time. I usually sleep from about 5 or 6 AM and wake up around 1 or 2 PM. I’ve heard that sleeping late can interfere with growth and brain development. Is it really bad for teenagers like me, even if I’m getting 7 hours of sleep consistently?
Circadian rhythm is true to an individual. The “normalized schedule” is a scam.
Hey,
About the time itself I cannot tell you, but I live in a place where it’s dark all the time in winter, and it can take a toll on your mental health to lack light
Raleigh said:
Hey,
About the time itself I cannot tell you, but I live in a place where it’s dark all the time in winter, and it can take a toll on your mental health to lack light
The way we overcome it is being social and with physical activities. Also with taking D vitamin. So if you start being depressed, think about it. Good luck!
Teenagers have a later sleep cycle, that is normal. 7 is a good number of hours, 8 is better and 9 is great but you lose any benefit sleeping later than 9 hours. Keeping a routine is the best thing you can do, our bodies like routines
Try to let yourself sleep as long as you need and wake up without an alarm, I would say is key.
Other tips: Use blackout material to darken your room during sleep. Eat lots of eggs and protein, which is especially good for a growing brain. This will give you the best brain health given your situation, matching our sleep to circadian rhythm is good but it shouldn’t really damage you.
Health is one of those things where nobody does it perfectly yet everyone pretends like they do.
My advice would be to just be strict on your bed time. Get some sunlight. You can tell if it’s bad for you by being self aware of how inflamed your body feels.
I did that for years and even decades because like you I never had to put an alarm but the problem is that even if you get 7 hours of sleep these 7 hours doesn’t worth 7 hours of night time sleep, same as going to bed at 11pm is much easier than going to bed at 5am.
Since forever humans (like most species) have been sleeping at the rythme of the sun, for sure you can fight it but you are fighting against evolution. The best hours to fall sleep (melatonin) and also the most recovering hours are from 10pm to 2am and its not going to change anytime soon.
Actually most people in these sub could fix their sleep just by going to bed earlier.
@Peyton
I have tried going to bed earlier and it doesn’t work
Zariah said:
@Peyton
I have tried going to bed earlier and it doesn’t work
Leave the screens an hour before bed, read a book, no caffeine after 12. Actually even caffeine is not that important if you are going to bed at the normal time, we cant fight it.
Also by earlier I mean before 11pm, not earlier than the usual 3 am 
the best things you can do are 1) be consistent, don’t go to bed at 11pm one night and 5pm the next, and 2) get as much daylight as possible. eat your breakfast outside or by a window. go for a walk.
as long as you’re relatively consistent in when you go to bed and when you wake up, you’ll probably be fine. if you really want to change your sleep schedule, for example during weekends or holidays, a little dash of melatonin (0,3 mg) could be used, but talk to your doctor first since you’re only 14! melatonin is your natural sleep hormone that gets higher during the night, and taking melatonin supplementary before bed is usually great for things like jet lag or a delayed sleep phase.