5 Ways to Ensure Your Teen Gets Enough Sleep
Photo: Daniel Gill/Getty
by Hilary Stern, All You editor
A new book sounds the alarm over how the current generation of kids is being driven to dangerous lengths to succeed while at the same time failing to perform at the levels their international counterparts do. Called Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids, it cautions hyper-competitive parents against pushing their children too hard and too far.
In his review of the book in the New York Times, Frank Bruni notes that one easy way we can help kids calm down, achieve better in school and possibly avoid physical and mental woes, from obesity to depression, is to make sure they get enough sleep. And while children of all ages are falling short on sleep, it seems teens are the most sleep-deprived of all, with fewer than 10 percent of teenagers getting the recommended eight to 10 hours a night. Here are a few ways to help your high schooler wake up each day well-rested.
1. Know that teenagers sleep differently than you do. Adolescents experience a shift in their circadian rhythms, making them fall asleep later and wake later, too. So even if your teen goes to bed at 10 p.m., she might not drift off until 11 and won’t necessarily be able to get up when the alarm goes off. But light and dark can override those rhythms. Try dimming the lights in her room as she is getting ready for bed and then throwing open the shades once it’s time to rise to let plenty of sunshine in.
2. Confiscate electronic devices one hour before bedtime. It’s not just that your teen will otherwise be tempted to text when he should be sacked out. The bright lights of phones, tablets and the like stimulate his brain and make it harder for him to fall asleep even once the devices are off.
3. Don’t let them hide out in their bedrooms. We know, we know: Easier said than done with children at an age when they demand privacy. But if you designate the bedroom as a “sleep-only zone,” keeping it quiet and cool, and insist activities like homework, TV-watching and video-game-playing take place elsewhere, it’s more likely he’ll actually snooze there. That’s because his brain then associates the bedroom with sleep.
4. Keep teenagers on a healthy sleep schedule. Teens like nothing better than to doze until noon on Saturday, but don’t be tempted to let them. By setting consistent routines, even on weekends, you’ll up the chances that they are able to stick to them throughout the week.
5. Let them unwind before hitting the hay. Once she’s finished her homework and powered down the computer and phone, encourage her to write in a journal, take a warm shower, listen to soft music or even meditate for a few minutes—all activities that are relaxing and conducive to sleep. And make it a rule that if she must drink the occasional after-school latte, she should do so no later than 4 p.m.
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