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Unveiling the Sleep Crisis: Implications for Adolescent Health,
Academic Performance, and Policy Reform
Participation in extracurricular activities, employment, and academic demands compete
for a time during an adolescent’s day with each one potentially resulting in later bedtimes.
Extracurricular activities can delay bedtime with evening tutors, meetings, or practices. The Child
Welfare League Foundation(2023) found that 59.8% of children and adolescents participate in
after-school tutoring, with urban students exceeding 72.4%. Among them, nearly one-fourth
(24.7%) attend tutoring almost every day (five days or more per week), and more than 63.8% stay
in cram schools until 9:00 pm, with 23.1% staying until after 10:00 pm, and those teens reported
significantly less total sleep time and significantly later bedtimes.

In addition to activities, many adolescents have after-school jobs. In one study, 58.7% of
adolescents reported having a part-time job and 28.3% reported working 20 h/week. Participation
in ECL activities or holding a job could also result in delaying homework completion until the
late evening, further delaying bedtimes.

More importantly, the academic stress faced by Taiwanese high school students could also
result in insufficient sleep. In today's competitive academic environment, adolescents often feel
compelled to prioritize academic success above all else. This pressure manifests in the form of
heavy workloads, demanding schedules, and the pursuit of extracurricular activities aimed at
enhancing college applications and prospects. As a result, Hua Wang and Xiaoyan Fan conclude
academic stress has a positive direct effect on adolescents’ sleep quality, suggesting that
adolescents with higher levels of academic stress tend to have poor sleep quality. The results
show that the impacts of academic stress on adolescents’ sleep quality are contemplated by
anxiety and school stress.

B. Biological Factors

During puberty, there are major changes in one’s circadian rhythm, where the timing of
melatonin release has been shown to change. Increases in daytime drowsiness, the development of
more adult-like REM sleep patterns, and a change in the circadian rhythm toward an owl-like
propensity for later bed and wake-up times. The melatonin production of the adolescent body
doesn't start until approximately 11 pm, peaks at 7 am, and then declines at 8 am. Adult melatonin
levels, on the other hand, peak at 4 am. For this reason, waking up an adult at 4 am is the same as
waking up an adolescent at 7 am.

School schedules affect adolescent sleep patterns by imposing earlier rise times that are
asynchronous with the circadian rhythm. In other words, teenagers must wake up at a time when
their bodies desire to be asleep and remain awake and engaged. Teenagers are unable to change
their bedtime in accordance with their knowledge of having to wake up early since they naturally
become more attentive during the night. Physically, they won’t become sleepy until melatonin
production begins later in the night. Students can't push themselves to go to bed early enough to
receive a full night's sleep because the circadian system isn't able to readily adapt to changes in
the sleep-wake cycle.

3. Research Analysis

A. Interview with a Professor Specializing in Sleep Research at National Taiwan
University

To explore conventional world sleep issues, we engaged in an interview with Dr. Fang-
Chia Chang. Dr. Chang, currently a professor in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at
National Taiwan University and a board member of the Taiwan Sleep Medicine Association,
earned his Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neuroscience from the University of Texas. His research

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