Adolescent Sleep Struggles

One of my favorite subjects of study is adolescent sleep!  So much has been studied on the topic but for whatever reason, the results are still not widely known or recognized - or at least not taken seriously.

The sleep struggle is REAL.

We know that once children become teenagers, it’s as if they all of a sudden can’t be productive before 10am and would sleep in til noon if we let them.  This can be very frustrating as a parent or teacher, especially if we know they went to bed early the night before!

What if I told you they actually weren’t lazy, and they legitimately have a biological reason for being so tired?

The National Sleep Foundation says that teenagers need between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of sleep each night, but very few of them are getting that much sleep.  An easy argument is to send teens to bed earlier - but that doesn’t work.  There is a sleep delay that develops as children grow into their teenage years, making them fall asleep later and thus causing them to sleep in longer.  This biological shift is actually a two hour delay (approximately) in the release of the hormone melatonin, which means in order to get the right amount of sleep, they need to sleep in about two hours longer.  A teen who used to fall asleep around 9pm before puberty would now more likely fall asleep around 11pm.

The problem then lies with high school start times.  Though research has demonstrated study after study that high schools should start later in the day - around 9am or so - most high schools start earlier than middle school and elementary school.  The idea to adjust high school start times has come up in discussion in a few states with the idea to swap them with elementary start times (elementary school starting first, then middle school, then high school, rather than the other way around).  Even with so much research on the topic, it rarely makes it very far in making any sort of change.

When teens fall asleep late and have to wake up early, sleep deprivation begins to affect a teen’s functioning.  Mood, behavior, and cognitive ability will often plummet and impair academic performance and driving performance.  Excessive sleepiness also affects memory and creativity, impacting a teen’s daily experience in the classroom.

So… what do we do?

Taking a short nap after school, participating in daily exercise, and limiting the use of caffeine daily and the use of cell phones, television, and other electronics right before bedtime all help with encouraging good sleep patterns.  Although teens won’t want to hear this, maintaining a regular sleep schedule and avoiding sleeping in on the weekends will help them on school days.

And lastly, even when you want to prod your child for being “lazy” or struggling to get up for school, remember to give your child some grace and understand that sleep truly impacts them on a biological level.

Or, they just stayed up late texting.