Why school should start later for teens | Wendy Troxel

632,616 views ・ 2017-06-09

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Translator: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz
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It's six o'clock in the morning,
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pitch black outside.
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My 14-year-old son is fast asleep in his bed,
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sleeping the reckless, deep sleep of a teenager.
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I flip on the light and physically shake the poor boy awake,
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because I know that, like ripping off a Band-Aid,
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it's better to get it over with quickly.
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(Laughter)
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I have a friend who yells "Fire!" just to rouse her sleeping teen.
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And another who got so fed up
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that she had to dump cold water on her son's head
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just to get him out of bed.
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Sound brutal ...
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but perhaps familiar?
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Every morning I ask myself,
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"How can I --
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knowing what I know
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and doing what I do for a living --
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be doing this to my own son?"
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You see,
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I'm a sleep researcher.
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(Laughter)
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So I know far too much about sleep
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and the consequences of sleep loss.
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I know that I'm depriving my son of the sleep he desperately needs
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as a rapidly growing teenager.
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I also know that by waking him up
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hours before his natural biological clock tells him he's ready,
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I'm literally robbing him of his dreams --
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the type of sleep most associated with learning, memory consolidation
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and emotional processing.
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But it's not just my kid that's being deprived of sleep.
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Sleep deprivation among American teenagers is an epidemic.
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Only about one in 10 gets the eight to 10 hours of sleep per night
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recommended by sleep scientists and pediatricians.
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Now, if you're thinking to yourself,
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"Phew, we're doing good, my kid's getting eight hours,"
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remember,
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eight hours is the minimum recommendation.
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You're barely passing.
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Eight hours is kind of like getting a C on your report card.
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There are many factors contributing to this epidemic,
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but a major factor preventing teens from getting the sleep they need
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is actually a matter of public policy.
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Not hormones, social lives or Snapchat.
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Across the country,
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many schools are starting around 7:30am or earlier,
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despite the fact that major medical organizations recommend
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that middle and high school start no earlier than 8:30am.
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These early start policies have a direct effect on how much --
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or really how little sleep American teenagers are getting.
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They're also pitting teenagers and their parents
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in a fundamentally unwinnable fight against their own bodies.
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Around the time of puberty,
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teenagers experience a delay in their biological clock,
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which determines when we feel most awake and when we feel most sleepy.
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This is driven in part by a shift in the release of the hormone melatonin.
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Teenagers' bodies wait to start releasing melatonin until around 11pm,
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which is two hours later than what we see in adults or younger children.
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This means that waking a teenager up at 6am is the biological equivalent
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of waking an adult up at 4am.
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On the unfortunate days when I have to wake up at 4am,
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I'm a zombie.
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Functionally useless.
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I can't think straight,
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I'm irritable,
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and I probably shouldn't be driving a car.
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But this is how many American teenagers feel every single school day.
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In fact, many of the, shall we say,
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unpleasant characteristics that we chalk up to being a teenager --
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moodiness, irritability, laziness, depression --
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could be a product of chronic sleep deprivation.
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For many teens battling chronic sleep loss,
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their go-to strategy to compensate is consuming large quantities of caffeine
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in the form of venti frappuccinos,
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or energy drinks and shots.
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So essentially,
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we've got an entire population of tired but wired youth.
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Advocates of sleep-friendly start times know
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that adolescence is a period of dramatic brain development,
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particularly in the parts of the brain
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that are responsible for those higher order thinking processes,
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including reasoning, problem-solving and good judgment.
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In other words, the very type of brain activity that's responsible
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for reining in those impulsive and often risky behaviors
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that are so characteristic of adolescence
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and that are so terrifying to us parents of teenagers.
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They know that like the rest of us,
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when teenagers don't get the sleep they need,
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their brains, their bodies and behaviors suffer
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with both immediate and lasting effects.
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They can't concentrate,
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their attention plummets
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and many will even show behavioral signs that mimic ADHD.
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But the consequences of teen sleep loss go well beyond the classroom,
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sadly contributing to many of the mental health problems
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that skyrocket during adolescence,
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including substance use,
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depression and suicide.
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In our work with teens from LA Unified School District,
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we found that teens with sleep problems
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were 55 percent more likely to have used alcohol in the past month.
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In another study with over 30,000 high school students,
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they found that for each hour of lost sleep,
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there was a 38 percent increase in feeling sad or hopeless,
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and a 58 percent increase in teen suicide attempts.
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And if that's not enough,
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teens who skip out on sleep are at increased risk
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for a host of physical health problems that plague our country,
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including obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
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Then there's the risk of putting a sleep-deprived teen,
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with a newly minted driver's license,
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behind the wheel.
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Studies have shown that getting five hours or less of sleep per night
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is the equivalent of driving with a blood alcohol content above the legal limit.
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Advocates of sleep-friendly start times,
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and researchers in this area,
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have produced tremendous science
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showing the tremendous benefits of later start times.
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The findings are unequivocal,
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and as a sleep scientist,
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I rarely get to speak with that kind of certainty.
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Teens from districts with later start times get more sleep.
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To the naysayers who may think that if schools start later,
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teens will just stay up later,
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the truth is,
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their bedtimes stay the same,
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but their wake-up times get extended,
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resulting in more sleep.
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They're more likely to show up for school;
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school absences dropped by 25 percent in one district.
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And they're less likely to drop out.
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Not surprisingly, they do better academically.
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So this has real implications for reducing the achievement gap.
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Standardized test scores in math and reading
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go up by two to three percentage points.
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That's as powerful as reducing class sizes by one-third fewer students,
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or replacing a so-so teacher in the classroom
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with a truly outstanding one.
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Their mental and physical health improves,
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and even their families are happier.
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I mean, who wouldn't enjoy a little more pleasantness from our teens,
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and a little less crankiness?
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Even their communities are safer
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because car crash rates go down --
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a 70 percent reduction in one district.
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Given these tremendous benefits,
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you might think,
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well, this is a no-brainer, right?
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So why have we as a society failed to heed this call?
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Often the argument against later start times goes something like this:
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"Why should we delay start times for teenagers?
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We need to toughen them up so they're ready for the real world!"
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But that's like saying to the parent of a two-year-old,
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"Don't let Johnny nap,
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or he won't be ready for kindergarten."
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(Laughter)
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Delaying start times also presents many logistical challenges.
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Not just for students and their families,
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but for communities as a whole.
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Updating bus routes,
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increased transportation costs,
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impact on sports,
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care before or after school.
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These are the same concerns that come up in district after district,
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time and again around the country
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as school start times are debated.
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And they're legitimate concerns,
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but these are problems we have to work through.
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They are not valid excuses
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for failing to do the right thing for our children,
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which is to start middle and high schools no earlier than 8:30am.
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And in districts around the country,
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big and small, who have made this change,
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they found that these fears are often unfounded
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and far outweighed by the tremendous benefits for student health
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and performance,
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and our collective public safety.
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So tomorrow morning,
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when coincidentally we get to set our clocks back by an hour
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and you get that delicious extra hour of sleep,
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and the day seems a little longer,
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and a little more full of hope,
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think about the tremendous power of sleep.
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And think about what a gift it would be
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for our children to be able to wake up naturally,
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in harmony with their own biology.
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Thank you,
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and pleasant dreams.
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