This is going to surprise a lot of people, but teens should really be getting eight to 10 hours of sleep every night,” says Elizabeth Rainville, PA-C, a physician assistant in Penn Medicine’s Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine Department.
Why so much? Through age 20, Rainville says, men and women are finishing the advanced stages of puberty and men are still physically growing. These things require a lot of energy, and we restore our energy levels primarily through sleep. Not getting enough sleep may put you at a higher risk of diabetes and long-term heart problems.
“Sleep also aids our ability to concentrate,” Rainville says. “We like to say that one of the ‘major jobs of adolescence’ is being a student. If you’re not getting enough sleep, it’s going to make learning more difficult.”
Even more, getting enough sleep enables us to better regulate our moods and manage stress. If you’re consistently shorting your sleep, both can quickly feel overwhelming. Prolonged stretches of poor sleep are linked to mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. They can increase the risk of suicide in teens, too.
A lack of sleep also negatively influences the part of our brain that controls impulsive behavior. Lots of studies have been able to draw a direct line between teens who don’t get enough sleep and high-risk behaviors like texting while driving, drunk driving, engaging in unprotected sex, using drugs and alcohol, and carrying a weapon.
What is Sleep Hygiene?
If you’re reaching the weekend on fumes (and even if you’re not) and sleeping late on Saturday and Sunday mornings to compensate, keep doing it. “You can definitely make up for a sleep deficit by sleeping in on the weekends,” Rainville says. “I encourage all my patients, if they’re in a position to sleep until noon on the weekends, to do it.”
To make the most of your time asleep, practice good sleep habits, which are sometimes referred to sleep hygiene. This is what good sleep hygiene looks like for a teen:
- Try to go to bed around the same time every night and wake around the same time every morning.
- Put away all electronic devices 30 to 60 minutes before going to bed. And don’t just plug your phone into a charger and leave it on your nightstand. Put it in another room so that you’re not tempted to pick it up.
- Caffeine has a half-life of up to five hours. “Most people don’t realize how long it stays in their system,” Rainville says. So avoid drinking it in any form (coffee, soda, energy drink) after 12 PM.
Rainville says it’s also a good idea to develop some soothing rituals, like taking a warm shower, meditating, and reading an actual book. In time, these become cues for your mind and body to start letting go of the day.
What if I Have Trouble Falling Asleep?
In recent years, nationwide surveys found the great majority of teens aren’t getting nearly enough sleep. And a 2018 study reported that almost a quarter of teens were struggling with insomnia. It’s believed that sleep troubles have only worsened for teens and adults during the pandemic.
If you regularly have trouble falling asleep and/or staying asleep, or you’ve been told you snore loudly, talk excessively in your sleep, or sleepwalk, talk to your family doctor about it.
“They can run tests to rule out an underlying condition as a cause. They can also screen for depression and anxiety,” Rainville says. “If all of that comes back OK, they can refer you to a sleep study.”
In the meantime, it’s also worthwhile to explore, either on your own with the help of a therapist, some of the forces that could be infringing on your sleep and what you can do to offset them. A big culprit is school.
“A teen’s sleep drive builds more slowly than an adult’s, which means their body doesn’t start producing melatonin, the hormone that promotes sleep, until later in the night. In turn, they won’t start feeling tired until even later,” Rainville says. “Basically, most teens are natural ‘night owls’ who want to stay up late and sleep in in the morning. But school’s early start time interferes with that.”
This is part of the reason why she encourages her patients to sleep as long into the morning as they can on the weekends, when it’s easier to follow your natural sleep-wake cycle.
But that still leaves five early mornings a week. It is possible to override your inner clock by committing to eight to 10 hours of sleep each night and simply starting your pre-sleep routine at the appropriate time. Figure out what time you need to be at school, then work your way backward, taking into account how much time you’ll need to get ready in the morning, the eight to 10 hours for sleep, and, finally, your pre-sleep routine. Gradually, your body will adjust to the new bedtime.
Of course, you can plan with the best intentions and still be derailed by a vibrating phone or the next episode of a show starting automatically. Few among us have the willpower to resist such temptations, but you still need to try. Keep your phone in another room, and disable the autoplay feature on your streaming services.
Finally, a study published earlier this year discovered an increased risk for sleep problems and insomnia among teens who receive certain welfare services and who experienced trauma. The researchers said that improving sleep – and mental health – in these cases begins with identifying the cause of the sleep issues, then treating the sleep issues. Cognitive behavioral therapy, specifically, was shown to support positive changes in those followed by the study.