The CBS Early Show is marking National Sleep Awareness Week by interviewing sleep experts throughout the week. Today’s installment featured Dr. Judith Owens, professor of pediatrics, who discussed the findings of a new nationwide sleep poll with CBS News correspondent Thalia Assuras. (Watch the video of the segment at http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml) Owens also is expected to discuss adolescents’ sleep needs this evening on the 5:30 newscast of NBC affiliate WJAR.

A new national study co-written by Professor Mary Carskadon finds that electronic distractions in teenagers’ bedrooms - cell phones, computers, televisions, video games and the like - interfere with teenagers’ sleep needs. (This article also was distributed through the Knight-Ridder News Service and appeared in numerous other newspapers around the country.)

A Brown University study about adolescent sleep needs found that school start times are too early for most adolescents because of the ebb and flow of teens’ melatonin levels.

Judith Owens, associate professor of pediatrics, discusses the effects of sleep deprivation in adolescents. The article cites a new survey, funded by the National Sleep Foundation, showing that teens fall short of the recommended nine hours of sleep.

Four out of five adolescents sleep too little, risking their health, education and safety - but the vast majority of parents are not aware there's a problem, according to a national survey released by the National Sleep Foundation. The chairwoman of the survey’s task force, Professor Mary Carskadon, also discusses the findings of her sleep research.

William O. Beeman, professor of anthropology and Middle East studies, writes that the talks proposed between the United States and Iran have a good chance for success because they have been structured in a culturally appropriate way.

Starting this summer, the U.S. Education Department plans to conduct in-depth investigations of whether selected colleges and universities are complying with federal anti-bias laws in their treatment of women (as students and as faculty members) in math and science.