ELECTRONICS IN THE BEDROOM PRODUCE “Junk sleep” in teenagers:

And although many adults claim that they fall asleep more easily with the TV on, it doesn’t always work the same way for kids. One in five of all the teenage boys surveyed admitted that leaving the TV or computer on was affecting the quality of their sleep.

The teens aren’t exactly bouncing back from the poor quality sleep, either. 40 percent of the group reported feeling tired in general each day, with 15- and 16-year-old girls doing even worse. But despite this realization, only 11 percent of teenagers surveyed felt that quality of sleep was important. “I’m staggered that so few teenagers make the link between getting enough good quality sleep and how they feel during the day,” Edinburgh Sleep Centre’s Dr. Chris Idzikowski said in a statement. “Teenagers need to wake up to the fact that to feel well, perform well and look well, they need to do something about their sleep.”

They do wake up to that, when they’re older. I hear adults say “I can’t go without sleep like I could when I was a teenager,” but actually I think they can — at least, I can — it’s just that we’re now smart enough to realize just how bad we’ll feel the next day.