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Speaking of Teens

#58: Why Teens Are Sleep Deprived, The Ramifications And How To Help

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Guess what? Your teen’s not staying up late because they make poor choices. They’re not fighting to stay asleep in the morning because they’re lazy. It’s not their fault - it’s not a conscious decision.

Just like other fallout from adolescent brain changes (you know, the ones that make them more prone to unpleasant emotions, more likely to do risky things like party and have unprotected sex, move away from you and towards their friends, etc.), their sleep patterns take a hit as well.

And teens are chronically sleep deprived because of a combination of neurobiology, modern life, and an education system that asks too much of them after they go home and takes far too long to accept what research says is best for kids.

I make this show just for you so if you have any feedback regarding this episode or any others or would like to suggest a future show, I’d love to hear from you!  You can reach me anytime at 864-313-7277 or acoleman@neurogility.com.

Access transcript here.

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Sources, Resources and Mentions: 

Know Your Suprachiasmatic Nucleus 

Know Your Pineal Gland

How Blue Light Affects Kids' Sleep

Teenage Circadian Rhythm 

National Sleep Foundation's Sleep Time Duration Recommendations: Methodology and Results Summary

Why are Teenagers so Sleep Deprived?

PBS interview with Mary Carskadon

List of articles about teens and sleep and school

Teens and Sleep: The Cost of Sleep Deprivation

CDC Statistics

Bedtime Screen Use Study (2023)

Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021

Ep. 44 Teenagers and Homework Overload. Is All The Stress Really Necessary? with Christine Kaplan

National Sleep Foundation on Drowsy Driving

How to Help a Teen Who Can't Sleep

Articles from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Improve Sleep-Improve Teen Depression

UCLA Mindful App

Sleep Pillow App

12 Hour Sound Machines Podcast

Various Studies: Park, Woong-Sub, Kwang Ik Yang, and Hyeyun Kim. "Insufficient sleep and suicidal ideation: a survey of 12,046 female adolescents." Sleep Medicine 53 (2019): 65-69; Liu, Xianchen, Zhen-Zhen Liu, Ze-Ying Wang, Yanyun Yang, Bao-Peng Liu, and Cun-Xian Jia. "Daytime sleepiness predicts future suicidal behavior: a longitudinal study of adolescents." SLEEP 42.2 (2019); Franić, Tomislav, Žana Kralj, Darko Marčinko, Rajna Knez, and Goran Kardum. "Suicidal ideations and sleep‐related problems in early adolescence." Early Intervention in Psychiatry 8.2 (2014): 155-162.

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