With packed schedules, school days that kick off at 8 a.m., and the lure of screens, it’s little wonder that many adolescents in the United States don’t get enough sleep.
اضافة اعلان
National estimates suggest about 6 in 10 middle schoolers
get less than the recommended nine to 12 hours of sleep a night, while about 7
in 10 high schoolers clock less than the recommended eight to 10 hours.
Even worse, more than 1 in 5 adolescents grapple with
insomnia, characterized by problems falling asleep, staying asleep or getting
sufficient quality sleep (or some combination thereof).
“There are two basic things that happen” when teens hit
puberty, said Dr. Judith Owens, director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep
Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital. “The first is that there’s a shift in
their natural circadian rhythms, so their natural fall asleep time and wake
time shift later — by up to a couple of hours. The second thing that happens is
their sleep drive slows.” So not only do adolescents want to stay up later, but
their bodies are actually capable of doing so, she said.
Sleep loss, not normalDespite these biological shifts, experts stress that sleep
loss is not a normal or natural part of adolescence, and the American Academy
of Pediatrics has said that insufficient sleep is one of the most pressing
health risks in adolescents, pointing to consequences such as impaired mood and
attention and diminished impulse control.
The New York Times spoke to Owens and other experts in
adolescent sleep and mental health about how to help teens who are struggling
with sleep.
Change one poor sleep habitAlthough the data on teen sleep deprivation is stark, Dr.
Sonal Malhotra, an assistant professor of pulmonary and sleep medicine at
Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, offered parents some
reassurance: Many of the teens she treats do not have what she would consider
true chronic insomnia, even if on paper they meet the criteria of struggling
three or more nights a week for more than three months.
Instead, they are simply plagued by poor sleep hygiene.
Malhotra shares that not to be dismissive of the challenges
many teenagers face around sleep, but to reassure families that small changes
can often make a dramatic difference.
She urges adolescents to make one adjustment to their sleep
routine that they think will be doable and probably beneficial — ensuring their
room is dark and comfortable, for instance, or avoiding having a large meal or
caffeine relatively close to bedtime.
“Targeting everything at once isn’t ideal,” Malhotra said,
adding that she tells teens if they can change one habit even 50% of the week,
she considers it a win.
Consider a harm-reduction approach to screens“We have truckloads of research showing how destructive
technology is to sleep,” said Lisa Damour, a clinical psychologist and the
author of “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers.”
She is adamant that no one — adults included — should have a
phone in their bedroom at night. Damour urged parents to set that rule early
on: “At the time that a child is asking for a phone, they will agree to
anything,” she chuckled. “Parents should not squander the massive leverage they
have.”
But if that’s not feasible, there are ways to lessen the
damage of nighttime screen use.
Passive use, such as watching a show, is better than active
use, such as texting or gaming, said Dave Anderson, a clinical psychologist
with the Child Mind Institute. What a teen watches and what they watch it on
matters, too.
For instance, a sitcom is better than a suspenseful show, he
said. And it is preferable to watch on a small screen rather than a 60-inch TV,
which emits more blue light.
“Exposure to light, particularly blue light, suppresses the
release of melatonin,” Owens said. “And teenagers are even more sensitive to
that suppression of melatonin.”
If teens are going to be looking at a computer or another
device late into the evening, Owens recommends giving them a pair of blue-light
blocking glasses or having them use an app to curb blue-light exposure. “It
doesn’t reduce the cognitive stimulation of doing homework at 10:30 at night,”
she said. “But it does help somewhat.”
Encourage “strategic napping,” but be wary of the weekend
catch-up
Teens are notorious for wanting to sleep late on the
weekends, but experts warn it can hamper weekday sleep.
“Come Sunday night, they haven’t been awake long enough to
fall asleep at a reasonable time in order to get up for school on Monday
morning, and the whole thing just kind of gets out of control,” Owens said.
She and Damour said it’s OK for teens to experiment with
sleeping in a little, but families should keep a close eye on whether it’s
having a downstream effect on their weekday rest.
Although naps cannot entirely make up for a bad night’s
sleep (or a bad stretch of sleep), Owens said she is a “relative fan” of
“strategic napping” to help teens recharge.
By that, she means a nap of 30 minutes or less, ideally at
some point between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., when there is a natural lull in a teen’s
circadian rhythm.
Help your teen ruminate lessAdolescents, like adults, can get caught in a mental loop
that fuels sleeplessness: I still have so much work to do. … If I don’t
get enough sleep, I will fail my test tomorrow. … I couldn’t sleep last night,
so tonight will be a disaster, too.
To help curb rumination, Malhotra recommends teens keep a
journal where they can jot down what they have already accomplished that day
and what the plan is for tomorrow, along with any worries they may have. At
night, parents should let their kids know that if they’re lying awake for more
than 20 or 30 minutes, they should get out of bed and do something relaxing,
such as read a book or listen to calming music.
Bigger picture: Parents should take a critical look at
whether their child’s schedule is simply too packed, Anderson said.
He and others also noted that parents should reach out to a
primary care physician or mental health provider if they are concerned by
prolonged sleep issues or feel their child is grappling with unmanageable
stress.
Still, Anderson said parents can help alleviate some of the
pressure on teens by showing them compassion and pushing back against the kind
of all-or-nothing thinking that contributes to the stress many of them feel.
He said that if you repeatedly tell a teenager, “Honey, I
want you to know that no one grade, no activity, no one missed social event is
going to make or break your life,” that can help.
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