The fact that teenagers have different sleep patterns from either youngsters or adults will come as no surprise to most parents. In fact, teen sleeping patterns cause more arguments between parents and their children than almost any other topic. What may come as a surprise, however, is that there are biological reasons for these sleep habits that teenagers have little or no control over.
Recent brain research has shown that a person’s sleep pressure rate, the biological trigger that causes sleepiness, slows down in adolescence, which explains the difficulty they have to go to bed at an appropriate time. Most parents would like their teenagers to be in bed by 10:00 pm so that they can get the nine hours sleep that they need each night. Unfortunately, because of a brain reorganization that takes place during adolescence, they are not usually sleepy at this time. The result is that they fight going to bed when they should because they do not feel sleepy. The sleep pressure does not usually come until one to two hours later.
The inevitable result of not being sleepy at an appropriate bedtime is that teenagers are very sleepy just when they should be getting up. This is when most of the arguments occur. Teens are rarely able to get up on the first call, so parents get angry. They wisely say “If you would just go to be earlier, you would be able to get up more easily�. This may be true, but it’s not possible for most teens. As a result it takes three or four attempts before the teens can get out of bed.
Another worrisome result for parents of these sleep patterns is the sleep deprivation that occurs. Teenagers rarely get the 9.25 hours of sleep per night that they need on average, so they go into the weekend in a sleep-deprived state. This causes them to sleep until at least noon much of the time, which in turn makes parents think they are lazy. The problem here is not motivation – it’s just biology.
Parents need to understand these altered teenage sleep patterns so that they don’t get angry with their teens, especially in the mornings. Adults need to be patient and persistent with their wake-up calls, and start early enough to accommodate three or four of them. Playing stirring music on the family stereo, like Sousa marches, may also accelerate the process. The main point to remember is that teens are not doing this deliberately. Instead it’s a brain process that requires adult understanding. Try to get them into bed as early as possible, but don’t insist the lights go out. Let them read if they want to, but do not allow them to play video games or watch exciting movies immediately before bed time. This will only cause them to be more awake and delay their sleep pressure even further. With this kind of approach, the battles between parents and their teens over bedtimes and wake-ups will cease to exist.