How the time change can help teens reset their sleep schedules : NPR

The change from daylight saving time to standard time provides a reprieve for those who need more sleep.

On Sunday morning, the clocks moved back an hour and many people may have enjoyed an extra hour of sleep. Going forward, this change means darker evenings and brighter mornings—and you can take advantage of that morning light to reset your sleep schedule.

This may be especially helpful for teens who chronically get little sleep. Three out of four high school students don't get enough sleep. according to to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dragging sleep-deprived teens out of bed in the morning or disconnecting them from screens and tucking them into bed at night can be frustrating for parents. Sleep doctors say better understanding teen sleep biology can help teens get more sleep.

Sleep and the circadian clock

More than other age groups, teenagers have to struggle to stick to a schedule that doesn't suit their biology.

One reason is our internal 24-hour clock, the circadian clock, which can be thought of “as the conductor of an orchestra of many clocks throughout the body,” says Stephanie Crowleychronobiologist at Rush University in Chicago.

At the onset of puberty, this orchestra of clocks decides: Hey, I want to stay up really late. This changes again towards the end of your 20s, but for teenagers it means they often just don't feel sleepy that early.

There is also the homeostatic sleep drive, another important biological mechanism that regulates sleep. It doesn't do any good for teenagers either. The sleep system tracks how long you're awake and tells your body when it's time to shut down. But in teenagers, this physiological process slows down, so they get tired more slowly, explains Crowley.

“You can think of it as a pressure cooker,” she says. “So in more mature adolescents, sleep initiation pressure rises much more slowly.”

School schedule and pressure

Even sleep medicine experts struggle with this aspect of parenting, says Dr. Sanjay Patelis a sleep medicine physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and father of 15-year-old twins.

Patel says he and his wife do everything they can to help their daughters get quality rest. For example, high school sophomores are not required to keep phones in their bedrooms at night, and they are not allowed to sleep after 8:00 a.m. on weekends as it may disrupt their daily schedule.

“I think parents and teens just need to try to point out how it affects them on a day-to-day basis, because otherwise nothing will change,” he says.

But Patel can't help the fact that his daughters' school day starts at 7:28 a.m., a time that doesn't suit their biology.

School start time is a big problem, but demands on teenagers after school are also robbing them of sleep, says Mary Carskadonsleep researcher at Brown University. Teens' schedules are filled with extracurricular activities, part-time jobs, and homework.

Carskadon says all of this contributes to widespread sleep deprivation. That's why she gets irritated when people disparage teenagers for being moody or having poor impulse control, since such behavior is a sign of poor sleep.

“I mean, what they're really doing is blaming the victim,” she says.

To help teens get better rest, Carskadon advocates for school to start later and give less homework. And she says extracurricular activities shouldn't extend far into the evening.

“We have to think around the circle,” says Carskadon, noting that public health issues like adolescents suicide rate And car accidents could be mitigated if teenagers got better rest.

Another systemic change that Carskadon, Crowley and Patel want is to end daylight saving time and maintain standard time throughout the year. This will increase exposure to morning light, which is an important environmental signal that it is time to wake up and may help teens adapt their circadian clock to an earlier schedule.

Sleep strategies to try at home

Sleep doctors recommend several strategies that parents can use to help their teens.

First, remind teens that quality recreation allows them to excel in athletics or academics, says Dr. Rafael Pelayowho works with adolescents at Stanford University's Sleep Medicine Center.

He also recommends letting them do things they enjoy when they first wake up. For example, if your child is into gaming, turn on the Xbox at 7:00 a.m. and tell them, “The earlier you wake up, the more time you can play the video game. And then you will have light in your eyes.”

Don't send kids to their bedrooms as punishment, Pelayo says, because it creates a negative association with where they sleep. And parents should model healthy sleep patterns for their teens that don't include avoiding late-night snacking and dark movies.

On weekends, many teenagers make up for lost rest by sleeping in the hours after the weekday alarm clock. Crowley says this causes a type of jet lag, as in just two days a teenager's internal clock will shift by 45 or 50 minutes.

An hour or so of extra rest is fine, but Crowley agrees with Patel that it's best to get up at about the same time every day—even on Saturdays.

And Crowley's research found that, unfortunately, long naps can make the problem worse because it weakens the homeostatic drive for sleep, leaving teens feeling tired even later. Crowley recommends limiting naps to 30 minutes.

A big problem many teens face is that they simply don't feel tired at night, although Crowley says the recent switch to standard time is a chance to switch to a more convenient schedule.

Let's say you usually go to bed at midnight. Maybe turn off the lights at 11pm tonight. Your body will likely still feel midnight, but you'll wake up with an extra hour of rest.