What’s the secret to helping your teen get better grades?

And, what’s the secret to getting him or her to be less sullen and moody?

The answer might surprise you. It’s the same answer to both questions: more sleep!

According to the Sleep Foundation, teens need between 8 ½ and 9 ¼ hours of sleep per night. They also, however, have biological difficulty falling asleep before 11 pm.

If teens need about 9 hours of sleep, and hit the sheets around 11 pm, that means that they should be waking up bright-eyed and ready to go around 8 am.

By the time that they have breakfast, and get ready for school, then leave for school, they should be right on time for their 10 am class, ready to learn!

Teen Biology + Early School Start Times = Lack Of Sleep And Poor Grades

Here’s the problem: most high school’s first classes begin between 8-9 am (some even earlier.)

This results in sleepy students. (Studies report that up to 20% of teens fall asleep in class on a regular basis.) And, as any parent of a teen can tell you, it also results in a severe case of the grumps.

It can also be linked to increase in teenage car accidents!

And not surprisingly, it results in poor grades.

One researcher says that sleep deprivation in teens is “three strikes against learning,” because 1) students aren’t alert enough to learn properly in class, 2) they aren’t mentally storing the information that they are learning correctly, and 3) they are not getting the sleep that they need in order to process learned information and transfer it to long-term memories.

That’s why some approximate 80 school districts across the USA are implementing later start times for highschoolers. The results of the later school start times are impressive:

• Less grumpiness
• Improvement in general health and nutrition
• Less falling asleep in class—about 20% less
• Less reported feelings of depression
• Less absenteeism
• Improved grades

What time does your teen’s high school start? Do you think it’s too early? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Read more:
Sleep Habits and Academic Performance
How Biology is Responsible for Teen’s Sleep
Stop Texting and Go To Sleep!

Put your hand up if you like to watch TV before you go to sleep.
Put your hand up if you’ve sent texts, answered emails, or answered a phone call while in bed.
Now put your hand up if you have had a bad night’s sleep, or have woken up tired.

New studies are showing that using technology during the hour before bed can significantly disrupt sleep patterns.

The research shows that artificial light from screens—even small ones like cellphones—disrupts circadian rhythms and causes poor sleep.

For students, the lack of sleep can affect learning ability. 55% of 13-18 year-olds surveyed were using some laptops before bed, which means less-than-optimal classroom performance. That’s because the brain recharges during sleep. It’s when the brain is moving and storing information—specifically moving fact-based memories from the hippocampus where they are stored temporarily, to the prefrontal cortex, which is essentially the brain’s hard drive. This means more room for learning. But in order to make room to learn more information tomorrow, you have to get a good night’s sleep.

That means no pre-bed video games. No late night text-a-thons. No falling asleep with the TV on.

The Takeaway:
Don’t make technology part of your sleep routine. Log off at least an hour before bed, and choose activities that will help your body get into sleep mode.
Here are some ideas:

1. Dim the lights
2. Read a book
3. Skim over school work
4. Organize your bookbag
5. Write in a journal

Read more about sleep and learning: Sleep Habits and Academic Performance, Why We Need Sleep to Learn

It’s Time to Lose Sleep Over Not Getting Enough Sleep

So your kid wants to stay up an extra hour. Whether that extra hour is for TV, video games, computer time, or to complete homework, that lost hour of sleep can do more than simply make your kid grouchy the next day—it can have substantial impact on academic performance.

A recent article in New Yorker Magazine called Snooze or Lose* compiled findings from a variety of studies on sleep deprivation in children. Across the board, the results from these studies said essentially the exact same thing: a child’s number of sleep hours is directly linked to academic performance.

Children’s brains are in a growth stage until the age of 21, and the majority of that growth occurs while children sleep, so even a short reduction in sleep time—even as little as 15 minutes—can have detrimental impact on academic performance.

Some of the findings from these studies include:

• Standardized test scores among sleep-reduced students were roughly 7 points lower than among students who got a full night sleep
• Measurement tools showed that, during class time, one hour of sleep loss is equivalent to the loss of two years of cognitive growth
• Identification of a link to high school grade points. For teenagers, 15 extra minutes of sleep can mean the difference between an A and a B

Using MRI scans, scientists are able to identify how the brain processes information at night. During the day, each separate area of the brain temporarily absorbs information, similar to a holding tank. During sleep, the day’s absorbed information is processed and relocated to permanent storage areas. And, each stage of sleep plays a different role in the processing of information.

After a particularly grueling day of class—think mental exhaustion—kids need even longer sleep time so that the brain can properly process and store information.

So, as a parent, how regimented should you be regarding bedtimes? If you are like most parents, then a strict bedtime during the week falls by the wayside when Friday hits. But one researcher found that sleep loss is cumulative and another, that every missed hour of weekend sleep creates a cumulative sleep debt.

Read the entire Snooze or Lose article here.

*Snooze or Lose was written by Po Bronson with files from Ashley Merryman.

They go to bed late, then drag themselves out of bed. Teen sleep patterns cause a lot of friction in many homes. What may surprise you is that there are biological reasons for these sleep habits which teens can’t control.

As our eyes register the onset of darkness, melatonin is produced by a pea-sized structure at the centre of the brain. This hormone helps trigger sleepiness. Research shows that in teens, the production of melatonin doesn’t usually begin until one or two hours later than it does for younger or older people. This explains the difficulty they have going to bed at a time that would ensure sufficient sleep. Most parents would like their teens to be in bed by 10 pm to get the nine hours of sleep they require. But, because of the melatonin delay in the teenage brain, they aren’t sleepy at this time and they fight going to bed.

Since teens stay up later than they should, waking up becomes difficult. Teens are rarely able to get up when first called. It usually takes them three or four tries to get out of bed. Most parents know the frustration of calling their teen for the third time only to be met with a muffled “humph, just a few more minutes!” The usual response is, “If you’d just go to bed earlier, you could get up easier!” While this may be true, it’s not possible for most teens.

A worrisome result of these sleep patterns is sleep deprivation. Teens rarely get the nine hours of sleep per night they need, so they head into the weekend sleep deprived. This causes them to sleep until at least noon, which not only makes parents think they’re lazy, it also tells the brain that nighttime lasts until noon and further throws off the sleeping cycle.

The ritual morning tug-of-war can be made easier by realizing that you can’t fight Mother Nature. Here are some additional tips that may also help to ’turn down the heat’:

• Remember, teens aren’t doing this deliberately.
• Start wake-up calls early.
• Try to keep a regular schedule, even on weekends.
• Avoid bright lights close to bedtime – that includes TV and computer screens.
• Encourage teens to sleep a little later on weekends but make up most of their sleep by napping.