Back to School, Back to Sleep By Ryan Jones
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t’s October and you know what that means: pumpkin spice lattes are back. Sure, but it’s also time for young folks to head back to class. Whether you’ve got teens going into high school or young adults starting their first semester of post-secondary education, the transition from summertime funtime to academic schedules can be a bit rocky, especially when it comes to sleep. Getting up in time to catch the bus or the opening remarks at an early lecture can feel like an impossibility. Likewise, falling asleep at a “reasonable hour” is equally tough. What can you do
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to help the young people in your family get the rest they need so they can learn and grow into adulthood? Let’s take a look. Sleep Challenges for Young People As an adult who is used to crashing early and getting up at the crack of dawn after around seven hours of sleep, it’s easy to wonder why teens and young adults have so much trouble staying awake in class. But the truth is, their sleep needs differ from those of full-fledged grownups. Biologically, most
young people need between eight and ten hours of sleep, yet most only get around seven. That’s a big problem for major classroom considerations like attention span, memory, enthusiasm, mood, and concentration. Outside the classroom, young people who don’t sleep well or enough may experience increased risk-taking behaviours, depression, and accidental injuries. Why is sleeping more so hard for teens? The teenage years see a hormonal shift in most people that results in feeling tired later in the evening. This makes it hard to fall asleep as early as
they are used to. But school schedules don’t account for this shift, keeping the first class of the day around 8:30 a.m. at most institutions. Adding screen time and homework into the equation only worsens the situation, as melatonin release in the brain is delayed, making it even harder to drift off to dreamland. And since school starts in September as the days become noticeably shorter, getting up when it is still dark out is its own challenge, leaving teens and young adults feeling lethargic and even depressed— not exactly the best start to the day. Aside from the biological consequences, sleep difficulties
