“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Such are the wise words that teenage anti-hero Ferris Bueller uses to justify skipping school for a little fun with his friends in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. His words ring true to anyone living in today’s fast-paced times, but they’re especially pertinent for adolescents. More than other age groups, teens really do need an occasional break from life’s hectic obligations. It has long been believed that teenagers are lazy—that they’re constantly finding ways to slack off in order to lie around doing nothing. Medical research, however, suggests that it’s time retire this myth. Upon hitting puberty, the human brain changes, and with that, there’s a shift in the circadian rhythms that govern the body’s clock. While most children and adults function best when they go to sleep and get up early, teens are biologically conditioned to stay awake later and sleep in: Their brains This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Nine Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 49 Correction: Clutter A tidy room does not always beget a tidy mind. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Correction: The Starving Artist Bad times don’t always make for good art. Arts & Culture Issue 45 Correction: Spontaneous Generation A curious theory about the origins of life. Arts & Culture Issue 44 Correction Wikipedia is good, actually. Arts & Culture Issue 40 Correction On the scary shortcomings of “fearless” philosophies. Arts & Culture Issue 39 Note to Self What advice would you give your younger self? An artist, a writer, a conductor, a curator, a rabbi and a robot pen missives to the past.
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