It makes no sense, however, to spend our hard-earned tax dollars to send kids to school before they wake up. I have even heard of schools that, instead of starting later, will rotate the first class of the day so the sleeping and snoring are evenly distributed between subjects. Adjustments like that are the proverbial parked ambulances at the bottom of the cliff instead of having a fence at the top. Keeping kids in bed is better than having them fall out of their seats. Just like patterning a school year after planting and the harvest, holding classes before 9 a.m. is reminiscent of having everyone up for milking. It was great for the 18th and 19th centuries, but doesn't make sense for the technologies and demands of the 21st.

Limits exist on the number of hours a trucker can truck, a pilot can pilot and how long student doctors can doctor. In the olden days when men where men and giants walked the earth, there were no such restrictions, and patients paid the price. I remember writing an order for 10 times the proper dose of a drug for a child in the hospital on the day after the night after the day I was on call. It was only with the sharp eyes of an awake clerk that I didn't do any harm.

It is the same with teenage students. Early to bed and reasonable to rise makes a student healthy, the economy wealthy and parents wise.

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Joseph Cramer, M.D., is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, practicing pediatrician for more than 25 years and an adjunct professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah. He can be reached at jgcramermd@yahoo.com.

There are numerous conditions linked with too little sleep. Some people have suggested that the lack of sleep is the sole explanation for the inexplicable behavior of all teenagers.