Psychology Today: How Modern Society Creates a Perfect Storm of Sleep Disturbances for Teens
Most teens don't sleep enough; here's how you can help.
With schools on summer break, you’ll find some teens awake late at night and sleeping until noon. There is clear evidence that staying up late and waking up later in the morning are normal behaviors in adolescence. When youth enter puberty, they experience a natural shift in their circadian rhythms (the biological process that regulates our sleep-wake cycle) called a “sleep phase delay.” Essentially, teens don’t begin to feel tired until several hours later than in prior years. And although teens are prone to staying up later, they still require eight to ten hours of sleep a night – hence the later waking times.
This becomes problematic when our modern society disrupts teens’ normal wake and sleep cycles, creating what one group of researchers has called a “perfect storm” of sleep disturbances for teens. For starters, the blue light emitted from modern technology – phones, computers, tablets, and TVs – is proven to upset our circadian rhythms and keep us awake. While this holds true for people of all ages, studies in both animals and humans have found that adolescents are more affected by blue light compared with people of other ages.
Increased academic and social pressures (which tend to demand even more technology use) contribute to the problem, making it difficult for teens to get enough sleep. In 2019, only 22 percent of U.S. high school students reported getting at least eight hours of sleep each night, a decrease from 31 percent in 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Oh well, tired teens aren’t really a big deal,” you may think, but the evidence shows that getting enough sleep is essential to teens’ overall health. Systematic reviews find that sleep disturbances in youth are related to depression, emotional reactivity, obesity, and risk-taking behaviors. Sleep promotes learning and memory; not getting enough sleep makes it more difficult to concentrate in school and to learn.
Read the full article here!
Reflection: Do you belive that the modern society is to blame for sleep disturbances for teens? Or do you think modern society can aid in improving sleep quality for teens?
#Sleep #Technology #SleepCycles
Hi @professionalVision2624! Very important and interesting post!
Reflection: Do you belive that the modern society is to blame for sleep disturbances for teens? Or do you think modern society can aid in improving sleep quality for teens?
- I believe the modern society is to blame for sleep disturbances because technology and electronics have come a much longer way. There's way more distractions whether an electronic or an internet platform. However I do believe it can aid in improving sleep quality for teens with a widespread of studies and awareness on the topic. I believe this topic needs more attention, thank you for contributing this! ☕️
@SirenOfSerenity
Hi! Thank you for your comment!
I think the same as you on this topic and it's important to see both the benefits of modern technology as it can work as a sleep aid, but it can also be very disruptive to ones sleep.
@professionalVision2624
This is a great article and yes I agree there's so many things in the modern world that distract and prevent everybody from having a good night sleep whether it be external environment such as noise pollution/light pollution or even internal things like social media/phones. Sleep is one of the biggest impactors of health and it's important to take seriously especially during your teen years.
@sunnyWriting4806
I'm happy you liked the article! Yes those factors are really important to take into account when it comes to ones sleep health and especially during those teenage years when young people are always connected to social media.
@professionalVision2624 I remember myself sleeping extremely late since a really young age. That was because of school.
I have also noticed that on TV there are more movies around the exam period. Probably because students or parents stay awake from anxiety.
We need to realize this is not healthy and adults should take the first steps of preventing student burn out through promoting a healthy and productive schedule with plenty of free time and creative activities.
Thank you for the post!
@calmDew1576
Thank you for your comment! Yes, it's important that we do recognize the unhealthy patterns of staying up late and especially for teens that might be struggling with other issues aswell.
