New York, March 3 (IANS): If you are homeschooling your kids, check if they are sleeping for longer hours. According to researchers, children schooled at home sleep more than those who attend regular school hours.

To reach this conclusion, the team charted the sleep patterns of 2,612 students, including 500 kids who are homeschooled. 

They found that homeschooled students slept an average of 90 minutes more than public and private school students. 

The results suggest that 44.5 percent of public and private school teens got insufficient sleep during the school week, compared to 16.3 percentage of homeschooled teens.

"We have a school system that is set so that the youngest children, who wake up early, start school early and our adolescents, who need sleep the most are being asked to wake up and go to school at a time when their brains are physiologically awake," said the lead study author Lisa Meltzer from National Jewish Health in Denver.

"Adolescents need nine hours of sleep and if they're only getting seven hours on an average, by the end of the week, they are 10 hours behind in terms of sleeping and that impacts every aspect of functioning," Meltzer added in the paper published in the journal in Behavioral Sleep Medicine.

"That cumulative sleep deprivation adds up, the ability to learn, concentrate and pay attention is all diminished when you haven't had enough sleep," she noted.

While you may not be able to change teenagers' biology, you can help them develop healthier sleeping habits, the author advised.