All persons involved are going to confirm that the journey from childhood to adulthood is a challenging one. Frequent side effects like irritability, mood swings and lack in self-confidence are even enhanced by an often occurring lack of sleep.
A lot of things change – so does the inner clock, too. The fact that teenagers go to bed later and like to stay in bed longer is no act of rebellion, it simply is a biological process. Besides the sexual hormones, the release of the sleeping hormone melatonin experiences a change, too. Amongst other things, the hormone is also responsible for our sleep-wake-cycle. During puberty it is released at a later time. Therefore, teenagers are simply not tired at their usual go-to-bed time, often not until 11.00 p.m. or even later. The early start of school often prevents the adolescents from receiving sufficient sleep. At this age, up to nine hours of sleep would be perfect – when the alarm goes off after seven short hours of sleep, two important hours of rest are missing. Every night. Added up, as much as ten hours until the weekend comes. It is thus hardly surprising that performance capabilities are missing and often bad mood prevails. But, what to do, when educational obligations prevent sleeping in late?
Healthy sleep makes attractive – make healthy sleep attractive
Stop the nightly discussions about bedtimes and indicate understanding. Unpleasant conversations and disputes are preventing sleep in this age, too. Show your adolescent that you take him serious and inform him about the influences of too few sleep on his everyday life:
- Too few sleep makes unattractive. Studies clearly prove that slept-off people look more attractive.
- Too few sleep makes more prone to pimples.
- Too few sleep increases mood swings and bad mood. Conflicts and discussions with friends, parents and teachers are a consequence.
- Too few sleep decreases performance and concentration. Bad marks mean more time for learning and increased pressure – times for friends and hobbies decrease.
- Too few sleep induces to eat more and unhealthy. Often, overweight is the consequence.
- Too few sleep weakens the immune system and leads to depressions.
- Too few sleep leads to the same behavior like too much alcohol. The risk for an accident massively increases.
The oncoming article contains some tips for healthy sleep. If you succeed in integrating some of them into the everyday life of your teenager nothing stands in the way of managing this challenging time effectively.
Receive further information in our sleep-healthy-guidebook “sleep yourself young, fit and successful”, free of cost.
Imagesource: @istock
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