Good sleep is a foundation of well-being. We all feel and function better when we're well-rested, but our culture can make it hard for all of us to get enough sleep – especially tweens and teens. Bedtime can cause a lot of friction between parents and teens, but they are not necessarily stalling or being irresponsible on purpose. Kids' natural sleep rhythms change at this time, and they make perk up at night. School and extracurricular activities can eat into sleep at both ends, and busy minds (and phone) keep them up in between. Read on for ways to support your child in lifelong healthy sleep habits.
The quality and quantity of sleep we get impact many facets of well-being. While scientists don't understand all the ways that sleep works, it is known to support brain function, cell regeneration, and body repair and detoxing. Good sleep improves emotional regulation, cognitive function, and attention span, and other functions. Insufficient sleep will affect a child’s ability to learn/concentrate, reaction times, and mood.
However, modern life is very different from the historical conditions under which our bodies and biology developed, in ways that can impact our sleep.
Light. Human beings evolved to sleep in coordination with the waxing and waning amount of light in the sky. Thus, light is a strong cue that affects our ability to fall asleep. Artificial light, especially the “blue light” emitted from electronic devices, disrupts our sleep cycles by suppressing the amount of melatonin emitted in our brains.
Safety. Nighttime, and letting down our guard by falling asleep, brought dangers to our ancestors. This means that children—arguably the most vulnerable of the family group— adapted to sleeping with others rather than alone. So, while this is not the cultural norm in most Western families, it is certainly not an unnatural desire among young humans. It also explains the heightened anxiety that many children, and even adults, feel at nighttime. Knowing this can help make space for struggles that arise when aiming to get children to sleep on their own.
Schedule. For most of human history, time and schedules were not defined as precisely as they are these days by school and work, so there was more flexibility to sleep according to the body's rhythms. "Rhythmicity" - or how regular we are with body rhythms for things like sleeping and eating – is an innate characteristic of temperament, that naturally varies between people. Some kids take to a sleep scheudle more readily than others. Equally, some people natural tend toward nighttime or morning wakefulness, and these are inborn characteristics. Things will generally go better if you can work with your child's own tendencies.
Additionally, tweens and teens have some special things going on that can affect their sleep:
Spending a lot of time on their electronic devices can be a barrier to sleep. The light from devices and interactivity of most apps stimulates and raises arousal level. Not to mention the content they consume or the social interactions they have online!
The sleep cycles of teenagers naturally shift to a later time. They are prone to wanting to stay up later and sleep in. This biological reality is at odds with most middle and high school start times.
While sleep can be tricky to regulate in children (humans) of all ages, there are also many things you can do to help improve your family’s sleep hygiene.
