Year 10 Pastoral Guardian

The key to good health and wellbeing and optimal performance is SLEEP. Research suggests that teenagers require eight to ten hours' sleep every night; however, teenagers' sleep tends to be less regular than adults and young children. They are more likely to form poor sleeping habits, such as going to bed late at night, irregular sleep patterns on the weekend comparted to the week and, on average, only having six to seven hours' sleep. This can lead to chronic sleep deprivation and can dramatically impact their mental wellbeing, growth, and development, and affect academic performance at school. Why is this a common factor amongst teenagers? The answer to this question can be explained through scientific research.

The Raising Children website states: it’s very common for children in the early teen years to start wanting to go to bed later at night and get up later in the morning. This is because they start to secrete melatonin later at night than they did in earlier childhood, which affects their circadian rhythms. Also, as their brains mature during puberty, children can stay awake for longer. Please also refer to Annette Butterworth’s article for more information.

How many of you find yourself seeing the glow of a light down the hallway late at night and then battle each morning to rouse your child out of bed? During adolescents, our children are wired to go to sleep around 1.00 to 2.00am and wake at 11.00am. Interestingly, you may find your child coping with their poor sleep habits; however, there are signs to look out for:

Change in mood, feeling down or grumpy;
Often late to school;
Tired during the day;
Poor academic performance; and
Sleeping a lot on the weekends.

So how can we support our children to have daytime and night-time habits?

What can I do to help my child?

There are simple techniques that can help prevent poor sleep behaviours. Again, I refer to the Raising Children website for some useful tips to help you help your child to develop good sleep habits. I have devised a checklist; this might be a meaningful exercise to complete together to identify the current practices your child is undertaking and may also provide you with some strategies to improve their sleep (and maybe yours!).

Resource: https://raisingchildren.net.au/teens/healthy-lifestyle/sleep/sleep-teens

Tamara Richardson