An end to adolescence

Abbott, Alison

doi:10.1038/433027a

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Published: 05 January 2005

Physiology

An end to adolescence

Alison Abbott

Nature volume 433, page 27 (2005)Cite this article

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Till Roenneberg et al. now provide a suitable marker (Curr. Biol. 14, R1038–R1039; 2004). Their questionnaire-based survey of the sleeping habits of 25,000 people between the ages of 10 and 90 confirms the normal distribution of chronotypes in the population: ‘owls’, who go to sleep late and wake up late; ‘larks’, who go to bed early and wake early; and those who fall between the two (the majority of people).

The authors' survey also shows a remarkably robust relationship of this chronotypology to age (see picture). Children are typically early risers but start to sleep progressively later as they enter adolescence. They reach maximum lateness at around the age of 20, when the curve abruptly starts to decline. The normal distribution of owl-ness and lark-ness in the population is apparent at each age — but, the authors suggest, it is the point at which an individual's curve inverses that marks the end of adolescence.

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