Comment by noduerme

Looking back, I think that I was chronically exhausted as a teenager. I was always on 5 or less hours of sleep. At that age, you have the metabolism to wake up and have a full day without feeling sleepy. But I've always wondered about why militaries deprive their recruits of sleep, except right before battle, or why school systems do - and I think it's simply that people are more malleable when they're chronically tired. Yes, you can get used to it, and your adrenaline will still kick in when necessary. But you're not performing as a fully cognizant human being. Teenagers, however, don't need to be fully cognizant of anything anyway... so it all works out.