Bedtime Stories:
Six common myths about adolescents and sleep.
by Judith Owens, M.D.
PARENTGUIDE
News May 2006
Let’s face it— as parents you’re
going to get a lot of well-intentioned advice
from friends, grandparents and other parents
about your adolescent’s sleep needs.
Some of this advice is going to be just plain
wrong.
New research comes out every day that challenges
a lot of old beliefs and misconceptions about
how and why we sleep. So sometimes, when you
actually look at the facts, things once considered
common sense regarding sleep turn out to be
not so sensible. Yet, you as a parent can
help make sense of all this. Do your homework.
Learn the facts. And be sure that the sleep
facts you are hearing or reading are accurate
by going to the best and most reliable information
sources available, such as the National Sleep
Foundation (www.sleepfoundation.org) and the
American Academy of Sleep Medicine (www.aasmnet.org).
Listed below are some common myths about kids
and sleep. You have probably heard, and may
believe, many of these misconceptions yourself.
Each myth is followed by some of the reasons
why it’s fiction and not fact, and what
the real skinny is regarding sleep.
Myth: Some children just don’t need
very much sleep.
Fact: Research has shown that the average
adult needs at least eight hours of sleep
to be at his or her best. There do appear
to be some individual differences, in that
some people seem to need slightly more or
less than the eight-hour average. However,
most adults who think they or their kids need
less sleep are kidding themselves. This is
because we all tend to underestimate how sleepy
we are and how much lack of sleep affects
us. We also tend to overestimate how much
we actually compensate for lack of sleep.
Although there has been less research looking
at sleep needs in kids, we do know that the
vast majority of children and adolescents
need a certain amount of sleep within a range
that is based on their age. The National Sleep
Foundation pediatric task force recommends
that children ages 6-12 years get ten to 11
hours of sleep each night and adolescents
12-18 years get 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep
nightly.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that
the amount of sleep your child typically gets
is the same as the amount of sleep he needs.
Look for clues: a well-rested child wakes
up by him or herself in the morning in a good
mood and ready to face the day. A well-rested
child also doesn’t nap (past the age
of 5 or so), fall asleep in the car or “sleep
in” on weekends, and is alert and attentive
throughout the day.
Myth: It might make you grumpy, but not getting
enough sleep doesn’t really hurt you
in the long run.
Fact: There is more and more scientific evidence
to suggest that, over time, not getting enough
sleep or getting a poor quality of sleep could
have serious consequences for your child’s
mental and physical health. Children with
certain sleep disorders that disrupt sleep,
like obstructive sleep apnea, have more learning,
attention and behavior problems and don’t
do as well in school than children who get
adequate sleep. Poor sleep has been linked
to problems with the immune system, which
can lead to less resistance to infections.
In addition, children who get less sleep have
been shown to have more accidental injuries.
In adults, studies suggest that inadequate
sleep may be associated with a greater risk
of obesity and higher mortality rates. Just
about every system in the body can be negatively
affected by sleep loss.
Myth: Sleeping late on the weekends will
make up for lost sleep during the week.
Fact: Getting less than the amount of sleep
that you need night after night accumulates
over time and starts to create a “sleep
debt.” And like all debts, eventually
you need to pay the piper. The problem with
waiting until the weekend to meet sleep obligations
is that in the meantime, your child is paying
the price of being less alert, feeling more
moody, thinking slower and having less motivation.
Sleeping in on weekends also makes it that
much more difficult to get back on a weekday
sleep schedule and get back on track come
Monday morning. Think of jet lag. Imagine
traveling back and forth from the east coast
to the west coast every weekend. That’s
what happens to your child’s internal
clock when he goes to bed three to four hours
later on Friday and Saturday night, and then
tries to fall asleep at a normal school bedtime
come Sunday.
Myth: A boring teacher (or warm room, full
stomach, etc.) can put kids to sleep.
Fact: If your child is getting enough sleep
on a regular basis, there is no teacher, math
book or reading assignment in the world boring
enough to make him fall asleep in class. There
are basically two things that make people
sleepy— not getting enough sleep or
not getting good quality sleep. The environment
kids are in, including the room temperature,
light level and entertainment value, may unmask
underlying sleepiness, but the environment
does not cause it! So if your adolescent is
dozing off in class or while watching television,
don’t ignore it or blame it on bad teaching.
Investigate!
Myth: Teenagers who want to sleep late in
the morning are just plain lazy.
Fact: Scientific evidence clearly shows that
puberty is associated with more than just
raging hormones. There are dramatic changes
in sleep that occur with puberty as well.
One of the most important such changes is
a shift in the natural biological sleep and
wake schedule to a later bedtime and wake
time. In other words, teenagers just can’t
fall asleep and wake up as early as they did
in elementary and middle school, because their
internal clocks have shifted. At the same
time, teens still need about nine hours of
sleep a night to be well rested. So the late
bedtimes dictated by biology and the early
wake up times enforced by school systems just
don’t match up.
Myth: Teenagers can pull an all-nighter to
study and still be ready for the big test
in the morning.
Fact: Teenagers are much better off studying
less and getting a good night’s sleep,
than staying up until the wee hours of the
night studying. Research clearly shows that
the ability to concentrate and learn new information,
as well as to work efficiently, declines sharply
after being awake for 15-16 hours, and continues
to bottom out the longer you stay up. Plus,
if the big test is at 8am, the problem gets
even worse. That’s because morningtime
typically represents a low energy point in
the body’s normal 24-hour circadian
rhythm (especially in teenagers).
Finally, there have been fascinating studies
showing the importance of sleep in learning
and memory. One study had a group of students
all learn the same material on day one. That
night, the students either got a full night’s
sleep or pulled an all-nighter. One week later,
the students were tested. Those who slept
the night after learning the material did
much better on the test than those who hadn’t
slept. Remember, this was one week later!
The study shows that getting sleep after learning
information seems important for memory consolidation.
Like many sleep misconceptions, pulling an
all-nighter is not a good recipe for making
the grade.
Judith Owens, M.D., is a developmental
behavioral pediatrician, director of the Pediatric
Sleep Disorders Clinic at Hasbro Children’s
Hospital in Providence, RI, and on the faculty
at Brown Medical School. Owens recently co-authored
a book for parents on sleep in preschoolers
through high schoolers— Take Charge
of Your Child’s Sleep; The All-in-One
Resource for Solving Sleep Problems in Kids
and Teens (Marlowe and Company). She has two
children: Grace, age 13, and Evan, age
16.
