ADOLESCENTS
It's the dilemma of parents camped out on the living room sofa,
awaiting their teenager's return from a late date: Why is the same kid
who was falling asleep at nine a few years back suddenly able to stay out
past midnight?
The answer may have less to do with adolescent rebellion than a
biological change in teenage brains that alters sleep patterns. And a key
contributor to those shifting sleep habits is that most alphabetically
challenged of nutrients, zinc.
Like humans, rhesus monkeys also begin staying up later during
puberty, researchers at the University of California find, But a diet low
in zinc foils the sleep shift. The result is monkeys who are
chronologically adolescent but whose sleep patterns resemble those of
preteens, report Mari Golub, Ph.D., Eric Gershwin, M.D., and
colleagues.
While their primate pals stay active for hours after nightfall,
zinc-starved monkeys quickly become too pooped to pop. They head off to
bed nearly 90 minutes earlier than their normal counterparts.
The study, reported to the Society for Neuroscience, is the first
to implicate biology in the teen penchant for later bedtimes. "It's
always been attributed to social factors--rebelling against rules, peer
pressure, things like that," says Golub. Those factors may well play a
role, but there are clearly physiological influences, too.
Beyond its effects on sleep, zinc is crucial for growth during
pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence. While humans are unlikely to be as
severely zinc deficient as the study monkeys, Golub says only a fifth of
teenage girls get as much as they should. The best sources? Red meat,
grains, and shellfish (oysters are a veritaable zincfest).
As for you parents on the sofa: Sorry, zinc doesn't seem to affect
adult sleep patterns. If you want to stay up late, stick with
java.
PHOTO (COLOR)
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