Morning Or Evening Teenagers: What Makes Them Different? – Being Parents

We all know teenagers who wake up early naturally and with a clear mind. While for others, it is very difficult to get up early, and it costs them a lot to recover their lucidity when they get out of bed.

These differences are due to our chronotype, and not just in adults. There are also morning adolescents, and evening adolescents, with different characteristics and needs.

Due to their young age, and the fact that they are under our responsibility, young people are often under pressure and forced to follow strict schedules. We insist that they have a set routine and we call them lazy when they fail to carry it out. However, part of what happens to them is determined by biological factors.

Morning and evening adolescents: two different chronotypes

The chronotype is the predisposition of each individual to experience peaks of activity and rest at certain times of the day. It is based on the synchronization of the circadian rhythm, a 24-hour physiological cycle that regulates our body.

This energy cycle is controlled by melatonin, a hormone that induces sleep and is released in the dark. Therefore, the latter determines when you are awake or drowsy. However, not all of us secrete melatonin for the same hours.

The morning chronotype

Teens who fall into this category have their melatonin released around midnight. This is why they need to go to bed early and wake up with a clear mind even if they get up at dawn.

Their best productivity hours are in the morning and their energy will decrease as the day goes on. Finally, when night comes, they are tired and fall asleep right away. Naturally, they should sleep between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The evening chronotype

On the other hand, in evening adolescents, the peak melatonin release occurs much later, until 6 a.m. This is why they wake up drowsy, and need a long time to wake up completely.

In addition, their energy increases during the day until reaching the moment of maximum performance, during the night. No wonder, then, that it is difficult for them to fall asleep early in the evening. We put a natural sleep schedule for someone of this chronotype between 3 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Only 50% of the population is in these two extreme chronotypes. The other half shares an intermediate chronotype.

Adolescence and the tendency to be late

Despite the personal predisposition of each individual, it has been proven that during adolescence there is a general tendency to be evening. From 12 – 13 years old, young people start to be more active during the second half of the day and to feel more tired during the first hours of the day.

It is clear that the company is made for morning people. School hours force young people to go to class and take exams very early in the morning. This comes into conflict with the tendency of our adolescents to be evening:

• They wake up drowsy and not very lucid. In addition, they are forced to take exams (and even be assessed) during these inauspicious times.
• They are unable to get to sleep at night because their energy is at its highest. Despite this, they still have to get up early. This is why it is common to accumulate a great lack of sleep.

• This lack of sleep is compensated for during the weekends, by sleeping a large amount of hours. This prevents them from establishing an organized sleep routine and affects their performance during the week.

All of these situations particularly affect those adolescents whose chronotype is predominantly evening, as they find themselves unequal in terms of opportunities: their morning mates receive education and are assessed during their peak performance hours, and they do not.

Evening or morning adolescents: learning to recognize and respect them

In conclusion, we must know the chronotype of our children to understand their needs. If the child stays awake until late at night or sleeps until noon the next day, know that this is a normal process of adolescence. Moreover, if he explains to us that he studies better at night, let’s believe him. Maybe he has an evening chronotype.

We cannot change the hours that govern the company. This is why we must try to take advantage of our moments of greater lucidity to be as productive as possible.