Sound sleep advice for teenagers

It’s a constant source of battle in our house – when to go to bed. The nine-year-old thinks he’s a teenager deserving of midnight feasts, the 13-year-old comes alive in darkness like a vampire. During the summer they’re hearing other kids out playing while I have ordered them to pull the blackout blinds down and put the lights out.

A survey by Planet Youth - a public health project aiming to improve the health and happiness of young people – was conducted among 4,478 15-16-year-olds in all of the secondary schools in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon during December 2020. It found that 59 per cent were not getting enough sleep.

But how much sleep do our kids need?

In a fascinating webinar organised by Planet Youth with sleep consultant Lucy Wolfe, it emerged that kids aged between six and 12 should be getting 9-11 hours while those aged 12-18 were recommended to be getting 8-10 hours.

Chronic sleep loss in teens has a devastating impact on them. It can result in poor judgement, lack of motivation, inattention, decision-making. It greatly affects their mood, making them vulnerable to depressive symptoms, with an associated link between sleep loss and suicidality in adolescents.

Lucy revealed there is a compelling body of evidence from studies assessing the relationship between short sleep and obesity.

“Sleep is necessary to ensure that we are optimally functioning - sleep is not just rest; whilst sleeping our brain and body is repairing and restoring, supervising a wide variety of biological maintenance jobs that support our immunity, muscle growth, emotions and brain processing ensuring that we and our children can function at an optimum level by day and live a nourishing and healthy life. Without adequate sleep, there is a burden on our children’s health and wellbeing.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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