Teenagers and Sleep
They just have different neurological wiring than adults
When I give public seminars, I often ask the audience if they had the choice of taming a wild lion or getting a teenager out of bed early in the morning, what would they prefer. They of course say the safest option which is taming a wild lion.
Often teenagers are described as difficult and lazy. These two words are especially used when we talk about the times that teenagers go to bed and the time they wake up.
Recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience suggest that teenagers are not difficult or defiant, they just have very different neurological wiring than adults.
We now know that there are significant changes that happen in what we call the teenage brain. Adults tend to think more with a part of their brain called the prefrontal cortex, the thinking part of our brains. Teenagers think more with a part of the brain called the amygdala, the emotional part of our brain. We now know the changes in the brain do not just effect emotions and thinking, they affect sleep in teenagers.
We have found that teenagers want to go to sleep 2-3 hours after an adult and they need a longer sleep phase, often 8-10 hours rather than the standard 7-9 that adults need.
Some will say teenagers should just go to bed earlier, but if I was to put most adults to bed at 6pm for the night they would not be able to sleep. When teenagers want to go to bed late, they are not being difficult, they are following their biology.
New scientific research shows just how important sleep is, as we now know that every single biological process within the human body improves with good sleep!
Fatigue is the leading cause of fatal crashes on our roads and it is the leading cause of workplace accidents! A disproportionate number of workplace accidents happen on night shifts. You can go years with poor diet before it really affects your health, but just a few days without sleep and you become at risk of a fatal car crash or psychosis (Irrational or delusional thoughts or actions).
We also know that when we are really tired, we have a lot more arguments with other people. Couples with poor sleep often have higher divorce and separation rates! New studies looking at bullying in schools shows that poor sleep is often a causal factor and improving student’s sleep reduces rates of bullying. As well as this, good sleep improves memory, decision making and problem solving.
Studies show when schools start later and students get the sleep they need, they perform much better academically and they have less time off sick. For some excellent research in this field have a look at the website, https://www.startschoollater.net/sleep-research.html
My specialist field is mental illness and suicide prevention. In the past we used to think that if someone had a mental illness then poor sleep would be a result of that. We now think it is the other way around; poor sleep is a significant causal factor in mental illness and suicide. We all know that if we don’t get a good night’s sleep, we often feel worse the next day. It is only in the last 20 years that scientists have figured out just how devastating poor sleep is to our well-being. I recently met a farmer in his 50s. He said late one night he was overwhelmed by all the problems he had on his farm, he thought about ending it all. He changed his mind and went to bed. When he woke up after a good night’s sleep, he realised all his problems were solvable. He was amazed at how tiredness made everything seem so much worse than it really was. We also know that if you have poor sleep you feel much more anxious.
We know that continuous and full sleep is really important. The most restorative part of sleep happens in the last 60-90 mins of sleep, so losing one hour at the end of sleep has a much greater impact than the percentage lost. We know that being woken up many times throughout the night is worse than short sleep! So full and continuous sleep is vital. Phones have had a disastrous impact on our sleep. We should put our phones into flight mode or on silent at night so we are not constantly disturbed by notifications.
If you experience poor sleep, make it a priority to address it, go and see your GP. There are many causes of sleep problems from racing thoughts to sleep apnoea to delayed sleep phase. All are at least manageable and many are curable.
Sleep apnoea involves waking up many times during the night because of breathing issues. It is very common; some people are reluctant to get help for this because in the past there were bulky uncomfortable masks to manage it. Today the masks are much smaller and more comfortable.
Hypersomnia or oversleeping can also cause the above-mentioned problems, so this should also be addressed.
The biggest cause of poor sleep is racing thoughts, this is almost always manageable. There are counsellors who specialise in this. There is a special form of counselling called CBT for insomnia. You can buy online courses in this for less than $100 or make use of the many counsellors around New Zealand who offer it.
If these suggestions don’t work try watching parliament TV, that will put you straight to sleep!
Two great books to learn more about sleep are Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker and Chasing the Sun by Linda Geddes. Both are available as print and audio books, for those who are not the best at reading.
We must make good sleep a priority, especially for teenagers.
Written by Michael Hempseed
The author of Being A True Hero: Understanding and Preventing Suicide in Your Community.
Sleep is a major theme in the book.
www.beingatruehero.com
