The "Wake Up, Sleepyhead" Phase: Ages 13+

Most teens don't get enough sleep. They need as much as 9 hours, but it's nearly impossible for them to get that. This is because teens' circadian rhythms get temporarily reset, so they become night owls—falling asleep later and waking up later, Dr. Verma says. With most schools' early start times and more homework than even parents can handle, it's a terrible situation. Author David K. Randall, quoted at Brain Pickings, illuminates [emphasis mine]: Biology's cruel joke goes something like this: As a teenage body goes through puberty, its circadian rhythm essentially shifts three hours backward. Suddenly, going to bed at nine or ten o'clock at night isn't just a drag, but close to a biological impossibility. Studies of teenagers around the globe have found that adolescent brains do not start releasing melatonin until around eleven o'clock at night and keep pumping out the hormone well past sunrise. Adults, meanwhile, have little-to-no melatonin in their bodies when they wake up. With all that melatonin surging through their bloodstream, teenagers who are forced to be awake before eight in the morning are often barely alert and want nothing more than to give in to their body's demands and fall back asleep. Because of the shift in their circadian rhythm, asking a teenager to perform well in a classroom during the early morning is like asking him or her to fly across the country and instantly adjust to the new time zone — and then do the same thing every night, for four years. There are only a few things we can do to help: Blue light therapy. Blue light, we've seen before, can boost alertness. So blue lightbulbs or lamps in the morning could help your teen adjust more easily. (The wavelength most studied for helping night owls is 470nanometers, Dr. Verma says.) Reserve the bed for sleep only. Advise your teen to have a good bedtime routine (yes, still!), which could include reading, but preferably not in bed, says Dr. Siege: "The act of getting into bed can be used as a final trigger for the brain to say 'I am going to sleep now,' so getting into bed should be reserved for the actual moment when one is going to be actually going to sleep." Good advice for adults too. Ban screens the hour before bed. Encourage your teen to keep the cell phone out of the bedroom (don't laugh, anything's possible!). Avoid stimulants. Per Dr. Siege: "Caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and of course other recreational substances can interfere with proper sleep and should be avoided by those struggling with insomnia." Push your school district to have later start times. Studies have shown that schools that tried later start times had better-performing students. Not only that, those districts had fewer car accidents caused by teenage drivers. 29 states have at least one district that has moved the start time later, and you can join the national movement to push back middle school and high school start times at Start School Later. Set a bedtime. Even if it's 11:30, if you, the parent, set a bedtime for your teen, it could mean better sleep, according to one study. NPR reports that's because it gets the message across that parents feel sleep is important. Yes we do.