The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s annual survey of adolescents, entitled The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, offers helpful information on the behaviors of teenagers. This article is focusing on the sleep habits of 13- to 19-year-olds. Research has shown that getting enough sleep is linked with improved emotional regulation, physical and mental health, attention, creativity, analytical thinking, learning, immune function, and behavior.

The CDC’s survey found that only about one quarter (or 1 in 4) high school students got at least 8 hours of sleep on a school night. Most young people need eight to ten hours of restful sleep to function at their best. Sleep deprivation can contribute to mental health issues, and is detrimental to a person’s thinking, as well as their physical and emotional state. Teens who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be irritable, make poor decisions, engage in risky behaviors, and get injured.

There are many reasons that teens aren’t getting enough sleep. Early school start times coupled with large amounts of homework and extracurricular activities significantly disrupt our youth’s sleep. Social media is another enemy to sleep, keeping teens engaged late into the night. However, all that said, there are several ways that families can improve a teen’s sleep. Try a couple of the following 10 suggestions.

Top 10 Strategies to Improve a Teen’s Sleep

Talk to your teen. Discuss the importance of sleep and give your teen facts about the benefits of sleep. Your teen may be more motivated to go to bed early if he or she understands how it impacts their mental and physical health.

Role model. Parents often underestimate their influence. And, what you do matters way more to your teen than what you say. Start by modeling good habits.

Set a bedtime. Decide on a bed time for school nights with your teen. An ideal bedtime would allow your teen to get about nine hours of sleep each night, but at least eight hours. In a study of more than 15,000 middle- and high-schoolers, those with bedtimes of 10 p.m. or earlier were 24% less likely to suffer from depression and 20% less likely to have suicidal ideation than those with bedtimes of midnight or later.

Set a device curfew. Set a time after which your teen can no longer talk on the phone, watch TV, engage on social media, play on the computer, or send text messages, instant messages or e-mails. The best way to enforce this curfew is to have a time when all devices must be placed in a charging location outside of your teen’s bedroom. Usually removing all devices 30 minutes before bedtime will work.

Let in morning light. Open the blinds or curtains in the morning to expose your teen to bright sunlight. This helps set their body clock for the day. Your teen will be able to fall asleep easier that night.

Help your teen plan ahead. Your teen may be a procrastinator. This can cause them to stay up much too late to get a lot of schoolwork done at once. Teach your teen good time management skills. If they can learn how to properly prioritize school assignments to spread the work out, they should be able to eliminate late night cram sessions.

Encourage some good sleep hygiene habits. While we cannot control our children’s behavior, we should at least encourage (not nag!) our teens to develop some good sleep hygiene habits, such as:

• Going to bed and waking up at reasonable times on weekends so that’s it’s easier to return to a school-week schedule on Monday.
• Creating a consistent pre-bed routine to help with relaxation and falling asleep quickly, such as gentle stretching, deep breathing, listening to a sleep story, meditating, or reading a book.
• Avoiding caffeine and energy drinks in the late afternoon and evening.
• Limiting afterschool activities so that there is time available for sleep.

Make the sleeping environment comfortable. Your teen’s mattress and pillows should be supportive. Their bedroom should be dark and quiet at night. The temperature should be cool.

Limit weeknight chores. Let your teen focus on schoolwork during the week. Wherever possible, allow your teen to do household chores on the weekend.

Prepare for the next school day. Help your teen prepare at night for the next day of school. You can make lunch while they pick out clothes and gather school supplies. This will allow a little more time for sleep in the morning. Added bonus that the mornings will feel less chaotic!

Final Thoughts…

If you can instill the value of prioritizing rest in your child, you will be ensuring their ability to maintain overall good health and wellness into adulthood.