I want you to keep two opposing concepts in your head:
1, Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at Brasenose College, Oxford.
2, Dave Mania, PHD in Teenage Mayhem at Dutch Elm Comprehensive, Ladbroke Grove.
The Egghead and the Hooligan. The former is much exercised by the latter.
Why does Dave conk out in my classes? The Professor knows. Research has shown that Dave has “a biological predisposition”. To wreck my lessons? Not quite. This teenage predisposition makes him “go to bed late and get up later”. Ah. What we doctors call sloth? Not at all.
His Circadian rhythms have run amok. Teenagers aren’t “properly awake until 10am”. Dave’s brain doesn’t work until then. Ergo, we should start school “later”. Moreover, Dave must be “educated why sleep is important”. Otherwise he might forget to do it, for the teenage bedroom, we learn, is “a place of entertainment”. Yikes! Is he up all night watching Kung Fu Head Crusher? Texting a paramour? Or necking White Lightning?
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