For parents of teenagers who are continually trying to get their kids out of bed, an interesting new study supported by the National Institutes of Health may shed some light on why it seems your child’s “get-up-and-go” seems to have got up and left.

The findings indicate that a shortage of exposure to a specific type of light in the morning may disrupt a teenager’s ability to reset their natural biological rhythm, thereby making it difficult to function at their best. The deficiencies of this light, known as “blue light,” seem to stem from the change in sleep patterns that are commonplace once a person reaches adolescence, and are rooted in hormonal changes as well as the demands of school, work, and social life.

Researchers arrived at their findings by observing students who attended a regular school that was especially built to help conserve energy. Due to efficiency considerations, large amounts of natural light are employed, reducing the need for electricity. Student volunteers were asked to wear special goggles that blocked out the blue light but allowed for proper vision.

What they found was that the students who wore the goggles, and were thus denied their daily dose of blue light, experienced disruptions in their internal clocks as evident by a delay in their evening surge in melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the body that helps induce sleep.

The authors of the study, published in the journal Neuroendocrinology Letters, indicated that the blockage of blue light as experienced with the goggles may in fact be analogous to what many students experience in their daily routines, where going to school before the sun rises and then spending a majority of their day in windowless school rooms would deny them the proper exposure to natural light, which happens to be the best source of light in short wavelength spectrum and includes blue light.

Furthermore, the authors indicate that what can compound the problem of a lack of natural morning light is an abundance of evening light in the form of computers and TVs. These artificial sources of light at certain times of the evening can also contribute to sleep problems, but the study is currently ongoing.

It is important to point out that the study did not actually track the total amount of sleep each student achieved, but the preliminary results are nonetheless intriguing and are the basis for further inquiry.

The need for more study is especially true in light (no pun intended) of what we know about how light affects our psychological and emotional state, and by extension, our overall health. Light therapy is commonly prescribed for people experiencing seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and depression. These occur in people who are adversely affected by a lack of natural light, usually when the days get shorter. By exposing themselves to a bright light source that mimics the sun, they can often overcome these natural light deficits.

The reason for this is because bright lights are thought to influence the natural circadian rhythms of your body, something many of us experience during the winter months. Exposure to the bright lights is believed to inhibit the premature release of melatonin in our body, thereby correcting our sleep patterns.

Interestingly, light therapy has not been officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a way to treat SAD, but it is nonetheless frequently used by mental health providers.

If you have questions or concerns about the sleep patterns of your teenager, speak with your pediatrician. For more information about light therapy and SAD, visit the website for the Mayo Clinic.