A letter for my parents.

Dear mom and dad,

I wanted to talk to you about my sleep schedule, because I know it probably looks really bad from the outside. I’m not trying to stay up late on purpose or ignore my responsibilities- it’s just I’m a teenager and teenagers bodies work a little differently than adults.

I recently learned that humans produce a hormone that makes you tired and it’s known as melatonin and teenagers’ bodies work differently than adults. This hormone, in a teenagers’ body produces a little later than in adult or children bodies. So even if I try to sleep earlier I technically can’t, because I’m just not tired.

I understand that getting enough sleep is important and I really want to improve my schedule. I just wanted you to know that it’s not me being lazy or careless- there’s actually something biological behind it.

Also, please don’t wake me up to early in the morning to do nothing. I’m not being lazy- I just really need to rest so I can function better. If you don’t get enough sleep you can get mad easily, not pay attention to any stuff and more.

Also, sleep facts 101:

- You might think when you sleep, your brain does too. But you are wrong. Brains work nonstop- especially during dreams, it’s basically cleaning, organizing memories and processing emotions.

- You can’t catch up on sleep: sleeping 12 hours on the weekends doesn’t completely fix sleep loss. Your body still feels off.

- You forget most dreams: you have like 4-6 dreams at night but your brain deletes most of them within minutes. So that one weird dream you remember? Yeah, that’s rare…

Love,
Your daughter ♥