According to Dr. Douglas Li, a pediatric pulmonologist at UCLA, the importance of sleep in teenagers is especially important because of their active brain development.
Around puberty, the body’s natural time clock shifts. Teens will want to go to bed a few hours later than they did before and wake up later. But because they need to be up for school, their total sleep time is reduced.
Most teens deal with this by catching up on sleep on the weekends – but that doesn’t always work. “When we sleep, we enter different sleep stages throughout the night. We need all these sleep stages to function properly,” says Dr. Li. “When teens lose out on sleep during the week, they may not be able to get them all back with the extra weekend hours.”
To promote better sleeping habits, Dr. Li recommends the following tips:
- Limit daytime naps to less than one hour.
- Don’t oversleep on the weekends by more than two hours.
- Avoid caffeine or sugary drinks after 4 pm.
- Avoid exercising close to bedtime.
- Avoid fatty, unhealthy foods that may cause heartburn.
- Limit the use of screens before bedtime: Turning off electronic devices one to two hours before bedtime is ideal, but even 30 minutes of no-screen time can help prepare you for better sleep.
- Use the bed only for sleep. Avoid reading or watching TV in bed.
- Don’t stay in bed if you aren’t sleeping; instead, get out of bed, do something non-stimulating and return when you feel sleepy again, ideally within 15 to 30 minutes.
- Cue your brain for sleep with a routine that includes soft lighting, calming music, or white noise.