Back to School: Tips for Better Teen Sleep Habits

Sleep is vitally important for our teenage population. It's not surprising that teens start winding down from the relative sleep freedom of the summer and back to the structure of the school year, it can be challenging for many of our teens to make the needed nighttime adjustments. Aaron Willis, DO, a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, explains why teens need a certain amount of sleep everyday and tips for helping them get better sleep as they return to school.

How Many Hours of Sleep Do Teens Need?

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), teens require at least 8-10 hours of sleep at night, which at times, can be a challenge, especially when balancing academic requirements, friends, social media, as well as early school start times.

With this in mind, the AAP estimates that up to 40% of teens are affected by sleep problems, and that chronic sleep loss in this age-group is now considered a public health emergency with increased risk for substance abuse, mental health problems, as well as car crashes and sports injuries.

It is important to understand that during puberty, there is a shift in the biology of your teen’s sleep cycle or circadian rhythm. This means that hormones which help promote sleepiness and wakefulness in your teen are secreted later, which can lead to severe sleep challenges, especially early in the school year.

That's why it's important to start working on your teen’s sleep schedule a few weeks before the school year starts to ensure that their school transition is a smooth one.

Tips to Help Your Teen Get Good Sleep

Some helpful tips I recommend include:

• Set a consistent bedtime every day, including the weekend. This is called sleep regularization.
• No caffeine after 3 pm, this includes coffee, energy drinks, or caffeinated sodas.
• Avoid late evening exercise as this can surprisingly be very activating rather than tiring.
• Avoid daytime napping, as this can decrease your teen’s sleep drive and promote delayed sleep onset.
• Avoid electronics around 1 hour before bed, and if using a cellphone or tablet at night, use the night mode setting to avoid certain wavelengths that may decrease melatonin and sleepiness.
• Only use their bed for sleep at night. Don't hang around or sit for long hours on the bed during the daytime.
• Keep bedroom cool and dark to promote a restful environment.

Two special tips I recommend include a technique called sleep restriction as well as bright light exposure.

Sleep Restriction

Sleep restriction “restricts” time in bed so that when your teen finally gets into bed, they are able to fall asleep faster and without frequent nighttime awakenings.

This involves taking the average number of hours of sleep (not less than 5.5 hours) and setting that as their sleep time.

For example, if your child sleeps for about 6 hours per night, we will set their sleep time from 12 am to 6 am. While this seems harsh, after about a week, they will experience a significant improvement in the time it takes for them to fall asleep.

The next step is to gradually advance the time they go to bed earlier by about 30 minutes every 3-5 days if possible until eventually they are on a more regular sleep cycle.

One thing to note, is that after moving the sleep time earlier, if they start to experience trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, you should go back to the previous later sleep time and try again in a few days.

Bright Light Exposure

Since light is the strongest cue for training your circadian rhythm, early morning bright light exposure can help with insomnia and circadian rhythm disorders in teens.

Typically, we recommend using a light box which produces 10,000 lux which can be purchased online for fairly cheap, and positioning it between 16" to 24" away from the face. After waking up in the morning, exposing your teen to about 30 minutes of bright light can help advance their sleep timing and promote wakefulness for the day.

Hopefully, these tips are helpful, and we can ensure that the transition back to school is seamless.