Teens Need More Sleep

I was just speaking to a twenty-something graphic designer about setting up a meeting and was taken aback when he replied, “I am not a morning person. Could we meet after 10:30 am?” He readily admitted that he while he has been out of college and graduate school for a few years, he is still on the “work until the wee hours of the night and sleep in late” schedule. No 9:00 to 5:00 corporate schedule for this young business owner.

Our conversation segued into how backwards it seems for high school to start before elementary school when younger kids naturally wake earlier than teens who are biologically driven to sleep longer and later than do young children and adults. The National Sleep Foundation advises teens to get 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep each night. Do you know any teen who gets more than eight hours of sleep on a school night? I don’t.

Lack of sleep: Negative side effects for teens.

No matter which study you reference, teens today are woefully tired. The National Sleep Foundation reports that only one fifth of American teenagers are regularly getting a good night’s sleep and that the consequences are serious. Sleep deprived teens are more likely to feel depressed, earn lower grades, and drive as if impaired.

The Sleep Foundation agrees, recommending 8-10 hours of sleep for teens to function well. That's a challenge, as many teens become night owls during puberty.

They site National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics that “Drowsiness and fatigue cause more than 100,000 traffic accidents each year, and young drivers are at the wheel in more than half these crashes.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call insufficient sleep “a public health epidemic.”

Another negative side effect of lack of sleep is the suppression of creativity. A well-rested mind is a creative mind. Sleep plays a crucial role in fostering cognitive abilities essential for innovation. One key aspect is the ability to connect seemingly unrelated ideas, a hallmark of creativity. Studies suggest that good sleep strengthens this ability.

During Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep, the brain appears to restructure and reorganize information. This process may lay the groundwork for the formation of new ideas and connections between thoughts. Meanwhile, REM sleep, often associated with dreaming, might be where these novel connections and insights emerge. These combined processes support the development of "aha moments" which are central to creative problem-solving and innovation.

It is virtually impossible for parents of teens to enforce eight hours of sleep per night for their children. For starters, teens are not apt to comply with a “bedtime,” but even if they were, after-school activities and hours of homework assignments prohibit that reality.

For some inexplicable reason, I find it hard to go to sleep before my daughter closes her laptop and shuts off her light. Could it be that sleep deprivation loves company?