Teenagers' Sleeping Habits

Schoolwork, homework, social activities and sports, not to mention cell phone and video games, keep active teens busy. They can also keep them up late at night. That's why rousting a teen from sleep in the morning can seem like a herculean feat. So much so that parents sometimes worry about what their child's changing sleep habits indicate about their physical and emotional well-being. Luckily, there is much information available to help you make sure that your teen is getting the sleep he or she needs.

Natural Sleep Pattern Changes

• Recent studies have found that sleep patterns change naturally during adolescence. Most young children have body clocks that direct them to fall sleep between 8 and 9 p.m., but by the teen years, that pattern begins to change, and children don't feel the natural urge to sleep until later at night. Compounded by social interests and busy schedules, this natural change can rob teens of necessary rest.

Not Enough Sleep

• For many years, researchers believed that teens needed less sleep than younger children, but recent studies have shown that teens actually need more sleep than younger children and adults over age 20. In fact, teens need about 9 hours of sleep per night. Unfortunately, they get much less overall. More than 90 percent report getting less than the recommended amount, and 10 percent report getting less than 6 hours.

Catching Up

• Teen schedules and sleeping patterns change throughout the week. Teens might stay up even later on weekends and sleep until noon the next day to try to recover lost sleep time. This may confuse their body clocks, making it more difficult to get quality sleep during the week.

Consequences

• Sleep deprivation can have a negative effect on physical, emotional and mental health. It can impact a teen's ability to concentrate on schoolwork, and it can impede focus during physical activities, increasing the possibility of injuries. Mental health experts have also found links between sleep deprivation, aggressive behavior, depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Solutions

• The most effective way to improve teen sleep habits might be to bring school schedules more in line with teenagers' natural sleep pattern, but there may not be public support for that in every district.

  There are still some individual strategies that can help, however. Setting a morning and evening schedule and sticking to it as much as possible (even on the weekends) will improve the quality of a teen's sleep.Taking a short nap in the afternoon can help, but naps longer than 30 minutes can exacerbate the problem by making it harder to fall asleep at night.

  An evening routine that includes calm wind-down activities like reading or journalism, dim lights and a cool dark bedroom can make sleep easier. Avoiding caffeine and alcohol will help as well. Implementing some of these can improve teen sleep habits and teen health.