Back-to-school blues

The Back to School Blues

Excitement, Anticipation, Sleep Deprivation

Back to school is usually a time of excitement....starting new schools, meeting new friends or re-connecting with old ones.

But with the end of summer comes the end of sleeping in. School seems to be starting earlier every year and earlier in the day as well.

This is particularly hard on teens. With school, homework and extra-curricular activities....teens tend to be getting (on average) about seven or less hours of sleep a night.

Teens need between 8 1/2 and 9 1/4 hours of sleep every night. In addition to that...they need the sleep earlier in the evening than adults. The biggest problem that teens have with getting enough sleep is that (unlike adults who just start to wind down from the day at about 10 in the evening)...teens speed up at night. So if they go to sleep very late...they will have already gone into the "speed up"

Teens need between 8-1/2 and 9-1/4 hours of sleep. For reasons not fully understood, teens need more sleep than adults. Plus they need it earlier in the day. Adults start to slow down by ten in the evening, but the internal clock of teens causes them to speed up. This may be due to the amount and time of melatonin secretion from the pituitary gland.

With early classes, teens have to be up about six in the morning. To get the sleep they need, they should be in bed by nine. That's almost impossible in today's hectic society. Many kids don't get to bed until eleven or later. There is too much to lure them away from their beds -- the internet, video games or just chatting on the phone with friends.

The result? Many students are unable to stay alert and concentrate on their classes. Lack of sleep is detrimental, not only to learning, but also to the immune system, motor skills, memory and creativity. And it's also detrimental to relationships. Let's not forget the "attitude" problem!

But there are some things parents can do. Dr. Anju Sikand, adolescent medicine specialist at Children's Hospital of Michigan offers these tips to help your teen cope with chronic slee