Scott Gelman | sgelman@wtop.com
February 24, 2025, 8:50 PM
Even though she’s been participating in science fairs since she was in elementary school, Rania Lateef doesn’t consider herself a “hard-core” STEM student.
But the sciences are evolving and have started incorporating more psychology and mental health research, so even though the Colgan High School senior viewed herself as more of a humanities student, her classmates and teachers convinced her to consider submitting research and finding competitions to participate in.
After the peak of the pandemic, when many people spent hours at a time looking at screens, Lateef — daughter of Prince William School Board Chairman Babur Lateef — considered what effect all that screen time would have. She became curious about how disrupted sleep could impact mental and physical behaviors.
That became the foundation for Lateef’s research, which landed her a spot as a top 40 finalist in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search competition, a prestigious science and math competition.
“Our world is kind of transitioning to a more digital world,” Lateef said. “And there’s many health implications that come along with the digital world that I don’t think people realize.”
The research, which Lateef conducted using fruit flies, was divided into phases. In the first part, she studied the effect of disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms on mood, mortality and addiction. She found that “severe circadian dysfunction can decrease” the life span of the flies.
The second phase, Lateef said, found that prolonged blue light exposure for eight to 12 hours can cause impaired memory, increased mortality and accelerated gut aging.
“I wanted to really spread awareness about why we need to pay more attention to getting more sleep or less screen time,” Lateef said.
The findings, Lateef said, reveal that the “duration of blue light exposure matters, and it can impact memory, mood and even life span.”
“We need to stop creating new problems for ourselves by understanding and protecting our own biological rhythms,” Lateef said.
The 40 finalists were selected from over 2,000 applicants across the country, Prince William County Public Schools said in a news release. The top 300 students earn a $2,000 scholarship, and the top 40 each receive a minimum $25,000 scholarship.
Lateef is scheduled to participate in a weeklong competition in D.C. next month, for the chance to win the top prize of $250,000.
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Scott Gelman is a digital editor and writer for WTOP. A South Florida native, Scott graduated from the University of Maryland in 2019. During his time in College Park, he worked for The Diamondback, the school’s student newspaper.
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