I can't think of one high school or college that would take this study into consideration. I dunno, I could be wrong.
Its not just ONE study. There is OVERWHELMING evidence that this occurs during teenage years.
Part of puberty is a decrease in melatonin. Melatonin decreases with age (its a biological fact). High levels of melatonin is associated with sleeping. Thus, a decrease in melatonin is equated to staying up longer, and a more difficult time staying asleep.
School districts have already started to implement a later start time and have seen great success. Schools have already been presented with the overwhelming evidence. Schools dont want to change because they dont want to revamp their school day. Its unfortunate because the teenagers suffer.
From one study:
Melatonin significantly decreased with age in both sexes (lineal relationship). This decrease was greater at night. Melatonin secretion follows a circadian pattern, with greater secretion at night. The change in this rhythm was significantly greater in girls, due to greater nighttime secretion.
Secretion significantly decreases in Tanner stages I and II with subsequent decreases in the later stages.Also:
Doctors blame some of melatonin’s overuse on society’s ignorance about adolescents’ sleep cycle. Teenagers and college students, whose bodies tend to release melatonin much later than adults, often use it in pill or liquid form to reset their body clocks to conform to the demands of early-morning school hours.
“The way school hours work means that we’re asking teens to be functional at a time in the morning when their brains are not ready,” said Dr. Belen Esparis, medical director of Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Sleep Disorders Center and Laboratory and an advocate for later high school hours. Other doctors agree. In a policy statement published online last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended middle and high schools delay the start of class to 8:30 a.m. or later.Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/article1986235.html#storylink=cpy