Journalism of Courage
Teenagers now consider 1 am normal bedtime,much to the disapproval of parents
What do night lamps; cell phones and teenagers have in common?They all work late hours – and sometimes together! Teenagers are notorious for sleeping at odd hours of the night,the prickly topic often causing disagreements between them and their parents. Sleeping at two in the morning,parents argue,is unhealthy; teenagers however try to explain why they almost need to sleep so late.
As the mobile boom hit India,nobody benefited from it more than teenagers did. Night calling in India is extremely cheap,almost half of what it costs in the day. As almost all friends have cell phones now,they use the night time to talk to their boyfriends or girlfriends, laughs Vigya Atri,a media trainee. On a serious note,she observes There is generally a lot of hustle and bustle in the hostel at night,making it impossible to sleep early. Sometimes we girls hold movie marathons or just gossip sessions. Its all a part of hostel life.
Social networking has also caught the fancy of teens in India. Facebook,Orkut and so on have become regular haunts,ensuring that teens spend at least two hours in a day updating their profiles. Or as Saiba Singh,a Symbiosis student says,Boredom drives us to play games like Poker,Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook. Then once we start,its hard to stop and log off.
Although if recent findings are to be believed,technology may only be partly responsible for the teenagers sleep abnormalities. Researchers now believe that the biological clock of teenagers run two hours later than that of adults and pre-teens,probably due to hormonal reasons. Dr Shailesh Chowgule,a psychiatrist,opines Its is not wholly unhealthy to stay up late into the night if the body is getting its required quota of sleep. However,I would advise against it as it disturbs your natural biological clock. Also,the activities that one indulges in to keep awake can become addictive and hence prove harmful in the long run.
