![]() “Teens can be moody even when they aren’t sleep deprived,” explains Bruno. ![]() So with so many teenagers struggling to get the recommended amount of sleep each night, parents may be left wondering what the consequences of this lack of sleep truly are.Īfter all, if not getting enough sleep is just synonymous with being a teenager, is it really that big a deal? It’s a lot, and the pressure to achieve only further complicates a teen’s ability to get the sleep they need to remain healthy. “I watch my niece constantly checking her social media posts well into the night and often wonder about the psychological pressure she must continually feel to check her social media, fit in, feel pretty, and conform to what the media portrays as society’s expectations,” he said. Nichols agreed, drawing from his own personal experience. However, Bruno explained sending teens to bed earlier isn’t as effective as some parents might hope, because “they will likely struggle to fall asleep.”īreuner noted additional barriers to sleep for teens can include: School schedules often contribute to teenagers having to get up earlier than their bodies naturally want them to. The challenge is that teenagers are often required to keep a schedule that does not match their internal clock,” she explained. “If as a society we could respect their circadian rhythm, it likely would be less of a struggle. She concedes this is understandable, given what we know about teen sleep cycles, but said that adults don’t recognize their changing needs. She manages a team of 35 nurses across Canada and the United States, working with families to assist with childhood sleep issues from infancy through the teenage years.īruno says it is entirely too common for teens to get less sleep than they actually need. This difference in sleep cycles often becomes an issue during the teen years, and could be a contributing factor to why so many teens aren’t getting the sleep they need.Ĭarrie Bruno is a registered nurse and founder of The Mama Coach, an organization that provides international sleep coaching. “During puberty, hormones are changing dramatically and teens undergo a delayed phase change in sleep in which their body tells them to stay up later at night and wake up later in the morning,” Nichols explained. What this means is that when your teen is begging to stay up late, or is dragging to get up in the mornings, they aren’t being intentionally defiant they’re just following their natural sleep cycle. Kasey Nichols, NMD, from Tempe, Arizona, says that “teen’s bodies and minds change in drastic ways during puberty, so it should come as no surprise that the timing of their sleep also varies.” This includes shutting off all devices in the home no later than 10:00 p.m.īut it’s important to note that teens also have slightly different sleep cycles than adults.ĭr. She said one contributing factor to this problem is that teenagers are watching their parents, and they’re learning from the sleep patterns they model.įor this reason, Breuner suggests parents apply the same rules to themselves as their teens when it comes to sleep habits. ![]() Cora Breuner is an AAP spokesperson and member of the division of adolescent medicine at Seattle Children’s hospital. Teens’ natural sleep cycles are being interruptedĭr.
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