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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Vindication!

An ongoing debate here in TRLEOOB (and, I suspect, in many other households across the country and around the world as well) revolves around the question of “how much sleep do teenagers need?”

You see, certain members of the younger generation claim that – all evidence to the contrary – a scant 6-7 hours a night is more than sufficient.

Thus, I was very pleased that the following incident occurred in the presence of the entire Shiputzim family:

During the course of a recent Shabbat meal, a family friend – who happens to be a well-respected pediatrician – casually mentioned that:

“Teenagers need ten to twelve hours of sleep a night… just like two-year olds.”

I’m sure you’ll understand why I decided that today – the day after Lag BaOmer – would be an appropriate time to record the doctor’s statement for posterity…

…והמבין יבין

7 comments:

  1. How glad you must have been for the support.
    I find that the younger generation, by this I mean young people in their late 20s early 30s, sleep less than we do; and I don't sleep much.

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  2. as I recall our oldest child had no bedtime at all.

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  3. Ilana-Davita - Interestingly, Israelis in general seem to manage on less sleep than the average American. They go to bed late and wake up early, and the traditional siesta is far less common than it used to be.

    "Anonymous" - Hmm. Let me guess. She "chose" to go bed at eight...
    :-)

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  4. Mrs S. -- I thin you misunderstood.

    Its not that teenagers need 10-12 hours of sleep a night, but they need 10-12 hours of sleep per 24 hour period.

    Sleeping from 4 AM to 2 in the afternoon works for them...

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  5. Jameel - Ahh! Now I understand. Thanks for clearing that up...
    :-)

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  6. It's been a rough week here after the all-nighter pulled by the teens and almost-teens on Lag BaOmer night. Hopefully, Shabbat has now put us back to the regular, normal chaos.

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  7. Baila - The real problem was that everyone was still exhausted from Pesach and Yom HaAtzma'ut. And now this week is Yom Yerushalayim. And then there's Shavuot...
    :-)

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