By Cynthia Weiss, https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/
When your teen goes to bed each night around 10 p.m., some nights do they complain that they cannot fall asleep until hours later?
Lots of children your teen’s age have trouble falling asleep easily at night. Though one might say they have bouts of insomnia, in many cases, the reason for sleep challenges can be traced back to habits a child has developed that interfere with good sleep. Less often, it may be due to a sleep disorder.
Unfortunately, many teens don’t get the sleep they need. To be well-rested and to help them stay healthy, teenagers need about eight to 10 hours of sleep each night. Healthy sleep is important for many reasons. It can fight stress, improve mood, and attitude, and provide energy. When teens are well-rested, they can concentrate, learn, listen, and think better than when they’re tired. That can improve school participation and performance. Healthy sleep also contributes to a healthy body, helping it run the way it should.
Sleep challenges plague many teenagers, with about 70% of high school students reporting inadequate sleep on school nights. One of the big reasons is that their body’s internal clock shifts during the teen years. In the preteen years, the hormone melatonin, which signals to the body that it’s time to sleep, is released into the bloodstream earlier in the evening. In most teens, melatonin levels don’t rise until about 10:30 or 11 p.m., so they aren’t sleepy before then. But going to bed at that time means teens should ideally sleep until about 7:30 or 8 a.m. This isn’t an option for many because of school start times.
More than others, some teens tend to show a preference for the late evening hours. They are actually most energetic, intellectually productive, and creative in the late evening. It is important to recognize that this is also a normal pattern. For those with these “night owl” tendencies, however, it is especially important to provide lots of light exposure and physical activity immediately upon awakening in the morning and to have dimmer lighting around the house during the evening hours.
One of the most important things teens can do to sleep well regularly is to set a consistent wake-up time and build a sleep schedule around it. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same, but the wake-up time should be within about a two-hour window every day of the week. This allows the body’s internal clock to run smoothly and avoid the difficulty of trying to readjust and get up on Monday morning at 6 a.m. after sleeping in until noon on the weekends.
Picking a reasonable bedtime and sticking to that most days can be very useful, too. When teens get up at the same time every day, they will get sleepy around the same time every night. Your teen should listen to that and go to bed as soon as they feel tired.
There are also ways your teen can make it easier for their body to sleep. For example, they should stay away from sodas, sugar, caffeine, and big meals two to three hours before going to bed. They should exercise but do it at least two hours before bedtime. And they should not nap during the day.
Creating a sleep-friendly environment can make a difference, too. Electronic devices and screens, along with the lights on them, in a teen’s room at night often disrupt sleep. Avoid distractions by keeping TVs and computers out of bedrooms. Cellphones should be turned off at bedtime and stored outside the bedroom. For the best sleep, keep bedrooms cool, dark, and quiet during the night.
Be mindful of how homework, extracurricular activities and after-school jobs can affect the goals you set. Often teens want to do as much as they can, but if the activities are too time-consuming, it may lead to a more significant amount of lost sleep. If your teen has a job, consider limiting it to no more than 15 hours a week with hours that do not interfere with sleep opportunity. Then it’s likely they’ll still have enough time for homework and other activities without sacrificing sleep.
If there are persistent problems falling asleep on a regular basis or if there are concerns for poor sleep quality, it is a good idea to work with a sleep specialist. Encourage your teen to get more sleep each night. When they do, it’s quite likely that they’ll feel more alert, have more energy and be able to focus more effectively and for longer periods of time at school.
—reviewed by Robin Lloyd, M.D., Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic
