Teen Sleep: Time to get up, won’t go to sleep

Why do teenagers need more sleep? And why are there sleeping patterns so different to their parents and younger siblings?

If they are allowed to sleep, teenagers will typically get around 9 to 10 hours of sleep per night, wake late and stay up to the early hours of the morning. But the amount that teenagers sleep and their sleeping patterns are actually not under their conscious control.

In this lesson we reveal that teenagers:

Need more sleep because of drastic restructuring of their brain that is happening while they sleep; and

Have different sleeping patterns because they have a different internal, biological clock that regulates their sleeping and waking cycle

We finish with some sleep hygiene strategies to help, if you or your teenager, have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep.