At night, your teenager should sleep like a baby.
In fact, they need more ZZZs than adults — up to 11 hours, compared to seven to nine hours for adults — to support their rapid brain and body development.
This is why losing sleep night after night is more than a bad habit. This has major consequences as adolescents become young adults.
Disrupted sleep in adolescents “can induce higher stress levels, more anxiety and even contribute to depressed mood,” Dr. Daniel Bigman, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and sleep physician at Northwell Health, told the Post.
Additionally, “it can cause daytime sleepiness, decreased motivation, and even difficulty with impulse control or decision-making,” he added. “Every amount of sleep lost is significant because of these consequences.”
New research shows that one habit most teens are guilty of is making it harder for them to catch that quality sleep: staying awake on their phones.
Burning the midnight oil
Researchers in New York used a smartphone app and Fitbits to measure phone activity and sleep.
They found that teens who spent more time on their phones late at night fell asleep later and slept less.
For every 30 minutes spent on the phone after 10 p.m., the teens fell asleep 26 minutes later, woke up 11 minutes later, and slept 12.9 minutes less than their usual sleep patterns.
Separate research found that more than half of American teenagers stay on the phone for an hour or more between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on school nights.
The fact that they used their phone directly before sleeping was also important. Those who were on the phone within five minutes of falling asleep had more disturbed sleep, especially during the first half hour.
To be exact, they found that each additional minute spent on their phone (within five minutes of falling asleep) caused them to wake up about a minute after falling asleep.
The teens were mostly on social media, including TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat, when they were supposed to be going to bed.
They were on social media after 8 p.m. for an average of 44 minutes per night, while other app categories accounted for less than six minutes per night. Social media was also used on more than half of the nights measured.
Why it matters
Bigman, who was not involved in the new study, notes that it’s not just social media that can disrupt sleep, but “any type of activity.”
“Phones can be stimulating. And things like social media, videos, text messages, notifications, lights, those are all signals to the brain that are transmitted through our senses, our eyes and our ears,” he said. “This tells our brain to stay alert when it really should be calming down.”
Light, in particular, signals the brain that it’s time to wake up, disrupting the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, he said.
This research improves on previous studies analyzing self-reported data on smartphone use, which can be inaccurate. The researchers in this study used more objective measurements through direct monitoring of smartphones and Fitbits.
Bigman says this more reliable data provides additional evidence to support our intuition that staying on the phone late into the night is not good.
“Overall, we can say that through the study we are getting more specific advice or support for reducing phone use and stimulation in the evening, especially before bed,” Bigman said.
Her advice is for teens and people of all ages: keep a good nighttime routine and sleep hygiene – and your body will thank you.
“The idea should be to limit phone use before bedtime and replace bedtime routines with other types of relaxing activities that may not be as stimulating,” he said. “Reading, music, relaxation and stretching exercises; other activities that are known to promote a sleep environment. »
For your children, encourage good habits rather than laying down the law. “My advice is not to try to punish teens for their daily activities or their desire to access their phones,” he said.
Gn Health
