Sleep and teenagers are a loving pair, most parents would agree. Getting an adolescent into a morning class that starts as early as 7 a.m. can be a difficult task when the youth is still tired from yesterday’s late night studying, playing games, or chatting with friends.
Moreover, the 6 a.m. rise-and-shine doesn’t work well for a body experiencing many chemical and physical changes, researchers say.
The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine published new advice for patients, describing a teenager’s biological clock that calls the shots about the right time for bed.
During puberty, sleep time for youth extends later into the night, which the medical journal describes as “a 2-hour sleep-wake ‘phase delay.’”
For a teen who requires an average of 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep every night, it would mean going to bed at 9 p.m. to get the healthy amount of snooze and still make it to an early class. However, the biological clock of a teenager is programmed to set the time for sleep past 10 p.m.. That’s the time when an adolescent starts to calm down and the body gets ready for sleep.
The result of going against nature’s clock is displayed during morning classes when teens sleep on their desks, don’t pay attention, or have a hard time remembering the lessons due to feeling tired.
Chronically lacking sleep has adverse effects on a developing body. The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine listed several health impacts of teenagers who get little sleep, including alterations in mood, behavior, memory, and attention.
The data shows sleepy young people can also be at an increased risk of car accidents. They also may partake less in physical activities, and therefore have a higher risk of becoming overweight, and simply stop enjoying life as much.
The Stanford Sleep Clinic says that lack of sleep can contribute to depression in teenagers and lower their immune systems, making students more susceptible to illness.
School performance is another important factor that is affected.
Change Start Time?
The impact of sleep deprivation on a teen can be very harmful and shifting the start time of classes is seen by some medical experts as a key solution. Other research has shown that changing the start time of school puts pressure on the whole community to adapt to the change.
In a 1999 study titled “The Impact of School Starting Time On Family Life” by school psychologist Gordon D. Wrobel, factors like school bus schedules, parent work schedules, and extracurricular activities created obstacles for families and the schools to change to a later school time.
For youth that had part time jobs, finishing class later also meant fewer working hours. Some families needed the extra income or expected teenagers to pay their own expenses.
In general, the study found that well-off families embraced the time shift while those who lacked sufficient resources faced difficulties accommodating the change.
Help Teens Get Sleep
Whether changing the start of the school day would be beneficial for the whole community still remains to be seen. However, parents have a lot of options in their hands to provide their children with an environment that nurtures sleep.
The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine offers a few suggestions that include having your teen relax for 30 minutes before sleep. Parents can have the child read, listen to music, or take a bath or shower.
It also helps if your teen has a quiet bedroom, with all video games, TV, cell phones, and computers turned off.
The journal further recommends physical exercise for improved, deep sleep.
Other recommendations from The Stanford Sleep Clinic include allowing your child to sleep in on the weekend no more than two or three hours later than their regular schedule. Later sleeping could upset their biological clocks.
Additionally, the clinic suggested that parents provide teens a less busy after-school schedule that won’t cut into sleep time.
Moreover, the 6 a.m. rise-and-shine doesn’t work well for a body experiencing many chemical and physical changes, researchers say.
The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine published new advice for patients, describing a teenager’s biological clock that calls the shots about the right time for bed.
During puberty, sleep time for youth extends later into the night, which the medical journal describes as “a 2-hour sleep-wake ‘phase delay.’”
For a teen who requires an average of 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep every night, it would mean going to bed at 9 p.m. to get the healthy amount of snooze and still make it to an early class. However, the biological clock of a teenager is programmed to set the time for sleep past 10 p.m.. That’s the time when an adolescent starts to calm down and the body gets ready for sleep.
The result of going against nature’s clock is displayed during morning classes when teens sleep on their desks, don’t pay attention, or have a hard time remembering the lessons due to feeling tired.
Chronically lacking sleep has adverse effects on a developing body. The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine listed several health impacts of teenagers who get little sleep, including alterations in mood, behavior, memory, and attention.
The data shows sleepy young people can also be at an increased risk of car accidents. They also may partake less in physical activities, and therefore have a higher risk of becoming overweight, and simply stop enjoying life as much.
The Stanford Sleep Clinic says that lack of sleep can contribute to depression in teenagers and lower their immune systems, making students more susceptible to illness.
School performance is another important factor that is affected.
Change Start Time?
The impact of sleep deprivation on a teen can be very harmful and shifting the start time of classes is seen by some medical experts as a key solution. Other research has shown that changing the start time of school puts pressure on the whole community to adapt to the change.
In a 1999 study titled “The Impact of School Starting Time On Family Life” by school psychologist Gordon D. Wrobel, factors like school bus schedules, parent work schedules, and extracurricular activities created obstacles for families and the schools to change to a later school time.
For youth that had part time jobs, finishing class later also meant fewer working hours. Some families needed the extra income or expected teenagers to pay their own expenses.
In general, the study found that well-off families embraced the time shift while those who lacked sufficient resources faced difficulties accommodating the change.
Help Teens Get Sleep
Whether changing the start of the school day would be beneficial for the whole community still remains to be seen. However, parents have a lot of options in their hands to provide their children with an environment that nurtures sleep.
The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine offers a few suggestions that include having your teen relax for 30 minutes before sleep. Parents can have the child read, listen to music, or take a bath or shower.
It also helps if your teen has a quiet bedroom, with all video games, TV, cell phones, and computers turned off.
The journal further recommends physical exercise for improved, deep sleep.
Other recommendations from The Stanford Sleep Clinic include allowing your child to sleep in on the weekend no more than two or three hours later than their regular schedule. Later sleeping could upset their biological clocks.
Additionally, the clinic suggested that parents provide teens a less busy after-school schedule that won’t cut into sleep time.
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