|
Teens: Wired for
Strange Sleep Habits
by Tara Kuther, Ph.D.
Does your teen stay up into the late hours, then walk around like a zombie during the day? On weekends, does she sleep until late morning? You may be thinking your teen's just lazy, but new research has comes to their defense - Teens are just wired for strange sleep!
Just lazy?
Imagine that it's 4:30 am. You've just arrived at the office. As you turn on your computer, you yawn and attempt to prepare and wake up for the busy day ahead. Sound like a nightmare? According to psychologists, most teens experience mornings like this. These teenagers are not farmers, in the military, or victims of a devious superintendent of schools. They are the average adolescents who must arrive for school at 7 or 7:30 am each morning.
Whoa, there's a big difference between 4:30 and 7:30, isn't there? Are teens just lazy? Perhaps it's poor sleep habits. Parents commonly complain that their teens stay up too late at night and wake too late in the morning. This sleep pattern appears so consistently among adolescents that psychologists have come to refer to it as "delayed sleep preference." It's not laziness or poor planning. Instead, it appears that teenage bodies are not equipped for the schedule that many school districts demand.
Why Does Delayed Sleep Preference Occur?
At one time, psychologists explained adolescents' unusual sleep patterns with remarks about adolescent rebellion. Changes in sleep habits were thought to be a manifestation of adolescents' desires to become independent from parents. More recent research suggests that there are biological reasons for teens' sleep preferences.
The onset of puberty brings changes in the parts of the brain that govern the sleep-wake cycle, or circadian rhythm. Our circadian rhythm is our biological clock. It runs on roughly a 24 hour cycle and appears to be reset each day by exposure to sunlight. During adolescence, the biological clock shifts so
that if teens were allowed to create their own sleep and wake cycle, they would go to sleep at about 1 am and wake at about 10 am.
But why does the biological clock shift in adolescence? Researchers aren't sure, but they do know that these changes appear cross-culturally and that teens need more sleep than children or adults.
Interact with other parents - Ask questions and make new friends!
|
|
So How Much Sleep Do Teens Need?
Adolescents need between nine and ten hours of sleep each night. With puberty comes greater demands for sleep because hormones, the chemicals which cause adolescent growth and development, are released primarily at night. The average teenager gets seven or fewer hours of sleep each night.
Dr. Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher at Brown University, tested whether teens can fall asleep in her lab during the school-day and found that many did so in three to four minutes, suggesting that they were sleep-deprived. She also found that many had elevated levels of melatonin, a hormone that prepares 0the body for sleep, in their bloodstream.
Sleep is Important!
Sleep is not optional; it's a biological necessity. Sleep plays an important role in storing long term memories and leaning. Adolescents who are deprived of sleep often display deficits in attention, memory, and reasoning ability. They may become cranky and depressed, or become easily frustrated.
The effects of sleep deprivation are bidirectional. The teen who is deprived of sleep will have a difficult time staying awake and paying attention at school. Performance at school may decline, and he or she may begin to worry, experience emotional problems, or feel depressed. At the same time, emotional distress makes it more difficult to go to sleep, worsening the cycle.
Interestingly, many of the correlates of sleep deprivation are similar to those thought to be "typical" of adolescence and puberty: irritability, moodiness, changes in school performance, and changes in motivation. Perhaps the characteristics that we associate with adolescence are really a function
of sleep deprivation!
Despite our understand of sleep during adolescence, most school districts schedule high schools to begin classes earlier than middle and elementary schools. However, research suggests that teens are most alert after 3 pm, when the school day is over. Some districts have begun to push the starting time for high schools back by an hour or so, but many are reluctant to do so. Are there any solutions to these inconsistencies?
Helping Teens
How can we help teens get the sleep they need? Here are a few tips:
- Keep the lights low in evening to help stimulate the production of the
sleep hormone melatonin.
- Try relaxation techniques to slowly ease into sleepiness.
- A cup of chamomile tea about 30 minutes before bed may help.
- Go to bed at the same time every night and wake at roughly the same time
each morning.
- On the weekends, don't sleep more than two hours later than usual.
- First thing in the morning, open the curtains and let light in to help
reset the biological clock.
Most adolescents may be reluctant to try these tips and may scoff at the idea of going to bed early. Perhaps it is most important to help teens learn about their sleep needs. Schools educate children about nutrition, health, and reproduction. We must also educate youth about their sleep needs.
Links, information and more for you
 Positive Discipline for Teenagers: Empowering Your Teens and Yourself Through Kind and Firm Parenting
Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World
A Crisis of Confidence: Teenage Girls and the Risky Years
Perfect Parenting (book)
Check out our local features!
Directory of Ages Articles
Directory of all articles
About the author: Tara Kuther is a college professor at Western Connecticut State University with a Ph.D. in developmental psychology. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in child, adolescent, and adult development. She also maintains the Psychology pages at Lifetips.com.
|
Send this to a friend
