Your Teenager And Sleep
Adequate sleep and the teen age years go together like oil and water, i.e., they don’t! Almost every parent/teenager pair that I speak to at routine well child exams has a complaint about the amount of sleep the child is getting. So here are some facts, tips and suggestions for you and your tired teenager. Of course, the parents are tired also, tired of preaching to their kids about sleep!
Daytime sleepiness, cause by lack of adequate sleep, is associated with multiple mental and physical health problems, including Depression, Mood Swings, Difficulty Concentrating, Job or School problems, Difficulty in Social Situations, Daytime Sleepiness, Behavioral Problems (ADD etc), Frequent Mistakes (not only in school work, but at jobs and while driving), Lower levels of Motivation, and worry about sleep itself.
There are multiple causes of inadequate sleep in teenagers. First and foremost are poor sleep habits that trace their origins back to infancy and young childhood. While this can’t be fixed once they are older, perhaps as a parent one can help the younger kids in the family have better habits now to prevent problems later.
Additionally, social media use and electronics in the bedroom, along with a heavy academic load and lots of extracurricular activities are extremely problematic. Add on to that teens that have jobs after school or early morning class or sports commitments the next day, and its easy to see why there are problems.
The first step in trying to help our teenagers is to try to alleviate, as much as possible, any of the above problems, i.e. reduce screen time, try to get homework done early, and so on. Much easier said than done. Next, try to avoid caffeine and exercise at least 4 hours before sleep time. Third, and very important, is to develop a consistent bedtime routine, such as put on pajamas, brush teeth, dim the lights, listen to soft music for a few minutes, then off to sleep. Keeping the lighting in the house and the teenager’s room dim is extremely important.
In addition, setting up a consistent wake time is equally important. Our bodies are programmed to sleep in the darkness and be awake in the light. Therefore, we need to wake up when it is light, and fall asleep when it is dark. Keep the wake time the same whether on weekends or weekdays. Do not allow “sleeping in”. It totally disrupts the sleep sequence and the good sleep habits we all need.
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is the condition most teenagers have that prevent them from sleeping adequate hours. I encourage you to read about this at http://www.stanfordhealthcare.org. This is an excellent article about this condition. Have your teenager read it to.
