How about this for a hard-to-refuse proposal for parents: a free elixir for your children that will boost the immune system, reduce anxiety, heighten focus, improve grades, decrease stress, reduce the risk of disease, and increase mood, creativity, and overall frame of mind. The answer: healthy sleep. This tantalizing proposal comes from authors Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright in their book, Generation Sleepless: Why Tweens and Teens Aren’t Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them. They offer sound advice, coming alongside parents with helpful research and practical suggestions. We as parents dictate schedule much more when our children are young, but as they grow up and assume more independence, we are training them to make prudent decisions to be “sturdy adults.” Managing their sleep is just one way to help them develop wisdom for life.
The book’s focus is on kids and what they need to thrive. The good news is that the principles are helpful, and even at times novel. While we all intuitively know that more sleep is good, you may not know some interesting facts such as:
- Not all screen time is the same: passive technology such as watching a television program or movie is better than interactive screen time (video games).
- Social media is a sleep killer, delivering dopamine hits that keep teens engaged, often in a way that breeds anxiety and stress.
- The presence of light – particularly natural light – is critical to engaging our circadian rhythm such that we can be fully awake in the daytime and sleepy at the appropriate time of night.
- Caffeine is a sleep killer, blocking the key chemical adenosine that creates healthy sleep patterns – late caffeine artificially grants us energy but can thwart the important sleep cycle.
- Teens require 9-10 hours of sleep per night, making it hard to balance all the activities. At times there is such a thing as involvement in too many activities, and parents may have to provide oversight of schedules that can have too many “good things” in a teen’s life.
School also plays a significant part in the life of any student. For years Providence has been intentional about homework volumes. We have sought to challenge students with high expectations and appropriate amounts of purposeful homework, incrementally increasing volumes over time such that juniors and seniors will have a little over two hours of homework. Graduates frequently report that they are well prepared for the academic rigors of college, are skilled in their ability to manage time, and equipped with successful tools of learning and study habits for college success.The book also focuses on the controversial topic of school start times. Research indicates that later start times are significantly better for middle and high school students. For example, an 8:00 AM start time is better than 7:30 AM; 8:30 AM is better than 8:00 AM. The authors recognize systemic challenges associated with these shifts, but nonetheless it offers helpful research for schools to consider. While the book is not written from a Christian perspective, they do offer wisdom for parenting, particularly in the teen years. For example, parents should always balance warmth with high expectations, empathy with clear limits, and kindness with consistency. Those are winning ingredients for parents. Tips are offered throughout the book to help with healthy family habits: purchase an old-school alarm clock so the phone can be outside the bedroom; provide a good pillow for incentivized sleep; create a nightly wind-down routine as a family by dimming lights and creating an optimal environment conducive for sleeping. With great tips and practical advice for parents of all ages, reading and applying the wisdom from Generation Sleepless will pay healthy dividends for your whole family.
