Sleep to Live! Nurturing Healthy Sleep Habits in Children and Adolescents
If you’ve been listening carefully, you may have heard a teenager near you say it: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Adolescent posturing? Sure. A killer Warren Zevon song, absolutely. But the guiding mantra for children? Definitely not. The utterer and every other teenager ought to know just how vital sleep is to their development and mental health in their teens and beyond. As parents, guardians, caregivers, and educators, understanding the importance of sleep and fostering healthy sleep habits can significantly impact a young person’s physical and mental health, academic performance, and emotional regulation.
Although it is easy to think that sleep is a passive state, our brains are very active during slumber. Over the course of a good night of sleep, the brain consolidates memories and repairs tissues, maintaining the regular and efficient functioning of our minds. Furthermore, the brain regulates hormones that are essential for growth and development, which is particularly relevant to teenagers. Research has consistently shown that sufficient sleep is critical for cognitive function, physical health, and emotional well-being. Negative outcomes like poor academic performance and difficulty concentrating, obesity and chronic diseases, and various mental health issues have all been linked to inadequate sleep habits.
As we sleep, our capacity to learn is restored and reinforced. Memory consolidation, attention regulation, and cognitive flexibility – all of these essential components of academic success are bolstered by healthy sleep habits. Students who regularly sleep better tend to perform better in school, exhibit improved concentration, and possess more advanced problem-solving skills. Conversely, sleep deprivation has all of the above-mentioned negative outcomes, all of which can be distracting to a student in a school setting.
With the ever-growing allure of screen time and social media’s threat to IRL socializing, young people face unprecedented challenges to developing healthy sleep habits. The blue light emitted by screens has been shown to interfere with the brain’s production of sleep-inducing melatonin, thereby keeping students awake longer as they scroll endlessly. On the other hand, pressures to succeed academically, socially, and extracurricular can weigh heavily and contribute to their overloaded schedules, leaving teen minds awake and racing.
As parents, guardians, and educators, there are several strategies that have been proven to help promote healthy sleep habits. First and foremost, you should start by encouraging (and modeling!) a consistent sleep schedule so that the child knows so innately what it looks like to get enough sleep that they don’t even have to think about it. Inviting your children to join you as you go through a relaxing, screen-free routine in the hour(s) before bedtime can have huge benefits, as you spend time together in a low-lit, quiet room reading, journaling, engaging in other relaxing activities as you both ready yourselves for restorative sleep.
While much of what can be done to promote healthy sleep will take place after the sun goes down, there are also things you can do during the day to help set your child up for sleep at night. As countless studies have shown, getting regular exercise can help prepare one’s mind and body for sleep, not to mention its positive effects on brain development in adolescents.
As teenagers try on different adult selves, they may be tempted to consume caffeine in its various forms, as they’ve seen adults do throughout their lives and across their screens. However, it is important for adults in their lives to monitor their caffeine consumption, as caffeine has been demonstrated to negatively impact various aspects of teenagers’ mental and physical health – chief among them sleep.
If you notice that your child often appears exhausted or otherwise shows signs of poor sleep health, the first step is to talk with them. Like any other concern you or they may have, open and pressure-free dialogue is key to identifying issues and making progress toward resolving them. Engaging your child in the process and framing it as a collaborative task of getting them to have enough sleep will likely go better than immediately blaming them for staying up too late on their devices. If the problem persists, do not be hesitant to seek professional help – a doctor, therapist, or sleep specialist can assess their relationship with sleep, monitor their sleep patterns, and/or recommend appropriate interventions.
In our ultimate quest of shepherding our children and teens past the obstacles of adolescence to a healthy, fulfilling adulthood, promoting healthy sleep habits ought to be a high priority. From the direct benefits to adolescent brain development and positive impact on mental and physical health to the measurable effects on academic success, sleep is never more important than it is during our adolescent and teenage years. As guardians and educators, the task is to model and emphasize the importance of these habits consistently and from a young age so that they never have to lose sleep over losing sleep.
About TLC
The Lincoln Center for Family and Youth (TLC) is a social enterprise company serving the Greater Philadelphia Area. Among its five divisions, TLC offers School-based Staffing Solutions, Mobile Coaching and Counseling, and Heather’s Hope: A Center for Victims of Crime. These major programs are united under TLC’s mission to promote positive choices and cultivate meaningful connections through education, counseling, coaching, and consulting.