Getting a good night’s rest is key to your teen’s mental and physical wellbeing. After all, sleep helps with a host of essential health functions like supporting the immune system, regulating moods, reducing stress, decreasing the risk for heart disease, and improving memory function.
When your teen isn’t getting enough sleep at night, you can probably tell right away. Whether they are unusually irritable, struggling to focus, or making troubling decisions, sleep deprivation takes a noticeable toll on your teen.
Even if you set a curfew and bedtime for your teen to help them get a much needed 8-10 hours of sleep each night, it can still be difficult to ensure they are getting adequate sleep. Some teens struggle to fall asleep and to stay asleep each night, increasing their chances of developing a sleep disorder and making it nearly impossible for them to feel well-rested.
You can help improve the quality of your teen’s sleep by promoting good sleep hygiene. Here are a few habits you should consider implementing to help your teen get plenty of rest each night:
Avoid caffeine before bedtime
While this might seem like a no brainer, many people do not know just how long it takes for caffeine to leave the body. Avoiding drinking a coffee or an energy drink right before bed time will not be enough to combat the effects of caffeine, which can take as many as 5 hours to leave your teen’s system.
If you want your teen to have an easier time falling asleep at night, make sure they skip out on drinking caffeinated beverages at least five hours before they plan on going to bed.
Stay away from screens
Although this is easier said than done, especially when your teen likes to unwind by playing video games before bed or has to stay up late working on homework on their laptop, encourage your teen to avoid using screens before bedtime.
Looking at screens or other sources of bright light can disrupt your teen’s circadian rhythm, making their body feel like it is time for them to wake up instead of falling asleep. It can also mess with their sleep cycle, causing them to wake up in the middle of the night.
Create a consistent bedtime routine
When your teen goes to bed at different times each night without any rhyme or reason, it can be difficult for their body to determine when it is time for them to go to bed.
With a consistent bedtime routine, teens will notice that they will start feeling tired around the same time each night, especially when they complete certain steps of their routine like their skin care regimen or brushing their teeth.
The body is used to recognizing patterns and adapting to schedules. By maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and routine, your teen will increase their chances of falling asleep with ease.
Don’t exercise before bed
While daily exercise has been shown to improve sleep quality and help teens fall asleep faster, it should not be completed within 3 to 4 hours of bedtime.
Strenuous or high-intensity exercise floods the body with endorphins and energy, causing them to stay alert and preventing them from drifting off when it is time for bed.
Encourage your teen to exercise every day, but make sure they know that they should get their exercise in during the daytime.
Avoid eating too much or too little
If your teen goes to bed feeling too hungry or too full, it can interfere with their sleep cycle and cause them to wake up in the middle of the night. Whether they are experiencing hunger pangs, indigestion, or any other sort of discomfort, it is a recipe for disaster when it comes to their quality of sleep.
Teens should avoid eating heavy meals, sugary or fried foods, and spicy foods before bedtime, but they should not skip eating a light snack if they are feeling hungry.
Take short naps
If your teen tends to come home exhausted after school or practice and nap for a couple of hours, it can have detrimental effects on their sleep later that night.
To avoid staying up late at night, teens should limit daytime naps if possible. When they do take naps during the day, they should make sure their nap is several hours before their bedtime and only for 20 minutes or less. This will ensure that their nap doesn’t disrupt their ability to fall asleep at night.
Your teen is not at their best when they are not getting enough sleep at night. If your teen has difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep at night, try these tips to help improve their sleep hygiene and promote healthy sleeping habits they will need for years to come.