Baldwin scholar says let your teens sleep in

A Baldwin native was featured in the Wall Street Journal last month for her research on mental health and sleep for teenage students.

Dr. Jessica Hamilton, a researcher and assistant professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, was recognized for her research on the importance of sleep and delaying school start times for high school students in the Wall Street Journal on September 27.

“Now that we know how sleep is linked to academic and mental well-being, we’re setting are teens up to fail,” said Hamilton. “They aren’t getting enough sleep, and we’re wondering what why there’s an increase in mental health problems.”

Hamilton said her research focuses broadly on understanding the risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adolescents. She said she mainly focuses on the roles of social media, and sleep and its potential to contribute negatively to people’s mental health, and conversely, it’s positive effects on teenage mental well-being. 

Hamilton said her research —focused on the relationship between suicidal thoughts and sleep for teenage test-subjects, on a daily basis — found teenagers with shorter day-to-day sleep schedules experience more intense emotional distress in response to social experiences, and tend to have more suicidal thoughts the next day.

“Not only does shorter sleep lead to more emotional reactivity, they also reduce the potential for protective factors or positive experiences that teens were having,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton said shorter amounts of sleep impair teenager’s ability to regulate emotional responses to life experiences and social interactions, adding stress to the tumultuous teenage years. She said according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, almost 75 percent of teens are not getting the amount of sleep they need, a trend she said is increasing.

“We have so much research on the impact and importance of sleep, but we don’t follow the science on this,” said Hamilton

Hamilton said, as teens get older they need more sleep. She said starting in their freshman year a teenager’s circadian rhythm will naturally shift, causing them to go to bed later. She said this rhythm change peaks at age 22, and begins to shift back to as people get older. To accommodate for this circadian shift, she suggested delaying school start times to at least 8:30 a.m.

“That’s the current recommendation, and in my opinion that’s still too early,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton said starting school any later than 8:30 a.m. will improve the quality of teen’s sleep, improve their mental health, academic performance, and how they regulate their emotions.

Hamilton and her team monitored a group of young adults and teenagers with risk factors — like depression, and prior suicide attempts— for three months using a modified research-grade Fitbit to track their sleeping patterns — a practice called actigraphy. She said they were then sent daily surveys to ask about their experiences during the day.

Hamilton said they were specifically tracking one key question — are the monitored teens feeling positive experiences with their peers, family, and teachers or negative experiences. She said they then survey them at night to gauge if they had suicidal thoughts that day, and the intensity of those thoughts.

As a former graduate of Baldwin High School, Hamilton said she struggled to acquire enough sleep when she was in High School. She said she felt exhausted all the time, despite the fact that she excelled academically. 

In fact, Hamilton her busy school schedule and expectation to participate in extracurricular programs, fueled her lack of sleep in high school.

“I was pulled in a million directions, trying to do all the things adults told me to prioritize, like get good grades, study hard, engage in community activities, which were all really important to me,” said Hamilton. “But sometimes I would get to bed at midnight or 1 a.m., working late on projects.”

Hamilton said her commute also factored in to her lack of sleep in high school, because she had to wake up at 6 a.m. to catch the bus at 6:40 a.m. She said this would cause her to be exhausted throughout the first few periods of the school day. 

Hamilton said the research on sleep shows scientists how sleep affects mental health and feels schools should set up a system to support teenager’s sleep.