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Adolescent Sleeping Habits

When you think of a teen's sleeping behavior, you might picture adolescents being up until all hours of the night and then in bed well past noon. The truth is that this stereotype is fairly accurate. And although there are biological factors to account for these sleeping habits, poor sleeping patterns negatively affect a teenager's life.

  1. Social Factors

    • Though social factors are no longer considered to be the primary cause of an adolescent's sleep patterns, they still have an effect. Teenagers frequently stay up late into the night playing video games, watching television and socializing with friends. As teenagers are expected to get eight to nine hours of sleep per night, this causes their bodies to want to sleep-in later, which can be a problem when they need to get up for school.

    Biological Factors

    • It has been discovered that the biological clock changes in adolescence. The circadian or "daily rhythms" that are maintained by the brain are altered. This affects a teenager so that, instead of beginning to feel tired around bedtime, they are just getting a burst of energy. The biological clock has re-wired the adolescent brain so that they are inclined to stay up late and sleep in every morning.

    Sleep Debt

    • As teenagers are falling asleep so late at night and waking up a few hours later for school, they are not getting the adequate sleep they need to function. This creates a sleep debt. For example, getting two hours less sleep than necessary on school days can create a sleep debt of 10 hours. This causes your adolescent to feel tired -- and teenagers will try to "catch up" on their sleep by sleeping in on weekends. However, this practice actually offsets the circadian rhythms even more which creates problems during the school week.

    Sleep Deprivation Effects

    • Sleep deprivation can create many problems and, importantly for teenagers, provoke difficulties in school. An adolescent who is not getting enough sleep, for example, may have trouble concentrating, feel moody or depressed and feel less alert. This can also lead to dangerous issues if the teenager is driving. Sleep deprivation can also cause mood swings and behavioral problems such as disciplinary issues and ADHD-like symptoms. In fact, many diagnosed cases of ADHD are actually symptoms produced by sleep deprivation.

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