I do remember reading in a variety of places that young people, especially teenagers, tend to have more trouble sticking to an earlier sleep schedule. But you’re right that this isn’t necessarily biological in origin. It could just be that young people have a) greater benefits to gain from staying up late, since that’s when a lot of socializing takes place, and b) less practice using willpower to force themselves to go to bed, and maybe less incentive, since with their “youthful endurance” they can push through on 2-3 hour of sleep.
And being able to do this, or for example get really drunk and still make it to work early the next morning, is definitely a status thing that people are almost competitive about. Maybe some kind of signalling at work, too: “I’m so healthy and strong, I can afford to get really, really drunk and hardly get any sleep and still function...I must have awesome genes.” That could explain how being a compete idiot and passing out on my friend’s floor in front of my supervisor when I had an exam the next day somehow made me cooler to all the staff.
I do remember reading in a variety of places that young people, especially teenagers, tend to have more trouble sticking to an earlier sleep schedule. But you’re right that this isn’t necessarily biological in origin. It could just be that young people have a) greater benefits to gain from staying up late, since that’s when a lot of socializing takes place, and b) less practice using willpower to force themselves to go to bed, and maybe less incentive, since with their “youthful endurance” they can push through on 2-3 hour of sleep.
And being able to do this, or for example get really drunk and still make it to work early the next morning, is definitely a status thing that people are almost competitive about. Maybe some kind of signalling at work, too: “I’m so healthy and strong, I can afford to get really, really drunk and hardly get any sleep and still function...I must have awesome genes.” That could explain how being a compete idiot and passing out on my friend’s floor in front of my supervisor when I had an exam the next day somehow made me cooler to all the staff.