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Working with Teen Sleep Patterns

The teenage years are full of wonders and challenges. One of these challenges is getting enough sleep. While adolescence causes physical changes that can interfere with a teen's sleep patterns, school and social demands can also keep a teen from getting the proper amount of sleep.

Teen Sleep

During the adolescent years, continual physical growth and hormonal changes can interrupt a teenager's internal clocks, or circadian rhythms. These changes can prevent teenagers from getting sleepy until much later at night than younger children, sometimes causing teens to stay up past midnight. Similarly, teenagers may also stay up later because their bodies tend to produce melatonin (a hormone linked to sleep) later in the evening than do adults and children.

While adults generally need between 5 to 8 hours of sleep per night, adolescents need about 9 to 10 hours per night. However, because adolescents do not get tired until later in the evening, many teenagers do not get enough sleep.

Getting Enough Sleep

Teenagers often get only six or seven hours of sleep a night because of staying up late and having to get up early to go to school. Sleeping more on the weekends does not help the problem. In fact, sleeping more on the weekends can make the problem worse by further confusing teenagers' circadian rhythms.

In the same manner, forcing a teenager to go to bed earlier will not help the problem. Just because your teen is in bed does not mean that he or she is sleeping. Forcing your teen to get in bed earlier will likely mean that (s)he is probably awake and staring at the ceiling.

Lack of sleep can make your teenager:

depressed
difficult to wake up in the morning
fall asleep during class
have mood swings
have poorer grades
have problems concentrating
have problems learning
irritable.

In addition, lack of sleep can lead to driving accidents because of poor concentration and slower response times.

Changing Teen Sleep Patterns

You can help your teenager get more sleep by helping your child:

avoid doing homework late at night: Try to set a schedule so that homework is done earlier in the day and on weekends.
avoid long naps during the day: A 30-minute nap will probably not interfere with sleeping, but more than 30 minutes might affect how early your teen will fall asleep that evening.
cut caffeine from his or her diet: In particular, try to limit the amount of caffeine your teen consumes during the late afternoon and evening hours.
stick to a routine as much as possible: Try to get your teenager to go to bed and get up the same time every day. Sticking to a routine can help stabilize your teen's volatile circadian rhythm.

Generally speaking, doctors do not prescribe medication to adjust teen sleep patterns. However, if you think that your child is getting enough sleep and is still tired during the day, it might be wise to make an appointment with the doctor. Being overtired may be:

a side effect of medication (Even over-the-counter drugs have side effects.)
a sign of depression
the result of a sleep disorder such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy.

Resources

Mayo Clinic (n.d.). Teen Sleep: Why is your teen so tired? Retrieved January 18, 2008, from the Mayo Clinic Web site: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/teens-health/CC00019.

Nemours Foundation (n.d.). How Much Sleep Do I Need? Retrieved January 18, 2008, from the KidsHealth.org Web site: http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/take_care/
how_much_sleep.html.

Yahoo Health (2008). Teenage Sleep Patterns. Retrieved January 18, 2008, from the Health.Yahoo.com Web site: http://health.yahoo.com/sleep-resources/teenage-sleep-patterns/healthwise--te7279.html.

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