Filed under: how to get your teen to listen, parent modeling, parenting teenagers, parenting teens, rick zapf, teen communication, teen help, teen parenting, Uncategorized | Tags: adolescents, brain growth, maturing, parenting teens
What is appropriate for my teenager to sleep? I think they sleep too much.
It’s amazing as a parent, to look at others and try to remember going through the same situations with your own child. When your child was a baby, they slept, ate, pooped, and took in everything in their environment. A child’s brain in the first three years grows at an alarming rate. So much of an infants resources goes straight to brain growth.
Now, your teenagers hormones have kicked in. The brain growth continues but it is different. Instead of making a cobb web-like brain as in children, your teenager’s brain has become the Edward Scissorhands of efficiency. Your teenagers brain is attempting to grow stronger cords between neurons and radically cutting the weaker connections that aren’t needed. Hence the forgetfulness, mood swings, and believing their way is the only way.
But all this takes energy and sleep. So if it seems as if your teenager is sleeping as much as when s/he was a baby – they need it just like the baby. Without out enough sleep they will become cranky.
Another difficulty is their sleep rhythm is skewed. They can stay up late and prefer to sleep late. Schools in the decade have experimented with starting school later to increase attendance score AND academic scores. And guess what it works! If a teen’s sleep pattern is really off just ask me how to reset the body naturally.
The simple fact is teenagers need ample sleep.
So be compassionate. Yes their best study time might be after 9pm but that doesn’t mean you can or want to help them that late.
There are others in the house that their needs should be considered. But more times than not, teens sleeping too much is not the signal for clinical depression. More on that later.
Rick Zapf, ms
Teen communication consultant
Www.z1publications.com
