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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Perhaps this is linked to the major pruning of synapses which takes place in the brain during adolescence.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I've always thought that teens' propensity to stay up all night has an evolutionary reason. Similarly, re the propensity of the elderly to sleep lightly and restlessly at night. These habits make it more likely that, at night, there is someone vigilantly guarding the campsite or village. They also enable the most productive adults to rest as much as possible to work the next day, so a division of labor as well.

Somewhere on the savannah lie the bones of a family whose teenagers went to sleep "at a reaonable hour".

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