I'm an evangelist about this, I know, but protect sleep as much as you can. The literature on its importance is absolutely stunning. I know there seems to evidence that gifted kids may need less, but I'm not personally all that convinced of that--I think they just work harder to stay awake, in many cases.
Also, many people don't know this, but teens need at least 9 and hopefully 10 hours a night or so per the literature. Sleep needs increase at that age, and sleep cycle shifts.
Yes, sleep needs DO increase (temporarily, usually) in adolescence. We've seen (and respected) this pattern, though as Zen Scanner notes, our DD seems to need 10-20% less sleep than most of her peers.
I'd add that some of this seems to be genetic. Low sleep needs seem to run on my side of the family, particularly in the women. I always take those kind of genetic quirks into account with physiological stuff like this.
We always know when our DD isn't getting enough sleep. It definitely shows, and we have (even at 11-13yo)
sent her to BED when her behavior crashes in a big way and we suspect that sleep deprivation is at the bottom of it. I highly recommend that approach, actually, with a child who becomes prone to power struggles when tired.
