Somnological Aspects of Puberty

Students who go to sleep at late hours at night show a high incidence of problems, such as feeling unwell when they awake in the morning, being unable to consume breakfast, having irregular bowel movements, feeling drowsy during the day, and physically feeling they didn't get a sufficient amount of sleep at night, as well as other problems.

Abstract

The characteristics of sleep during puberty are discussed from the physiological aspect of hormone secretion and from the social aspect of reduced sleep time. Many types of hormones show an increased rate of secretion during sleep at night. Thus, sleep cannot simply be said to represent a stoppage of activities, and rather it comprises another form of 'activity.' During puberty, in par- ticular, the secretion of sexual hormones increases during sleep. Sleep is therefore assumed to play a role in promoting the maturation of sexual function. However, in Japan, the amount of sleep time that junior-high school students get has been on the decline. One of the factors contributing to this decline is that students are going to bed at increasingly later times. Students who go to sleep at late hours at night show a high incidence of problems, such as feeling unwell when they awake in the morning, being unable to consume breakfast, having irregular bowel movements, feeling drowsy during the day, and physically feeling they didn't get a sufficient amount of sleep at night, as well as other problems. Because the same group tends to show similar symptoms even during summer vacation when the number of hours of sleep increases, it is clear that this is not simply due to reduced sleep time. Accordingly, the increasingly later times at which they go to sleep must be recog- nized as a major problem.