We’re well into the school year at this point, and since we’ve returned to near-regular rigor, I’m hearing students report pulling all-nighters to get their projects done and regularly staying up into the wee hours to fit in everything they want to into their lives. I’m always keeping an eye out for research on adolescent sleep, what lack of it does to one’s brain and body, and possible interventions or remedies for this public health crisis. A 2020 Swedish study on the facilitators and barriers of a good night’s sleep for adolescents sheds some light for us. The researchers in this case investigated adolescents’ perceptions regarding helpful factors and barriers for restorative sleep. The 45 Swedish adolescents in the study articulated three main pro-sleep factors that they knew worked for them: 1) striving for a sense of well-being 2) tiring yourself out 3) limiting access to electronic media.
I’m going to start with the last factor. One intervention on a family-level would be to have norms about shutting down electronic devices and/or the household internet, etc. at a certain time; “parental behaviors (late work habits, internet rules) were perceived as important for adolescents’ sleep habits.” I think back to my adolescence in the late 80s and early 90s, with a household that went quiet around 10 p.m., with no internet or cell phones at all, with no expectation of being in touch with friends, and usually no requests for interaction from anyone for a solid 8 to 9 hours every single night–what a restful reality that just doesn’t exist for the vast majority of our adolescents today.
In the Swedish study, “the adolescents expressed that it is important to be inaccessible during the night as interruptions can prevent a good night’s sleep. They reported that they had different strategies to make themselves inaccessible during nighttime, and this helped them to feel in control.” Knowledge of strategies is not the same thing as employing those strategies, though, as we see when we read on: “However, the adolescents mentioned that it was difficult to find a balance between being uninterrupted and yet be available for their friends and family at night. The adolescents described a feeling of losing control as a feeling of responsibility to be available for friends and family.”
This study brings out some important nuances: many adolescents who are making poor choices regarding sleep are not simply foolish hedonists; they are young people often torn between responsibility to themselves and to the people they care deeply about, young people who are trying to fit a lot into every day so that their future stays open and bright. Our students here have heard enough messaging about cultivating “a sense of well-being” aka mental self-care over the years that they, like the Swedish students, would be likely to identify “engaging in relaxing activities and dealing with strains” as one facilitator of a good night’s sleep. Once a student has reached the point in the evening when they still have two hours of homework and they’re feeling stressed out and tired, I have to wonder how much of the time our students are choosing two hours of “relaxing activities and dealing with strains” instead of homework…the procrastination beast is a large one this year.
Finally, “exhausting oneself physically was described as having a positive impact on sleep. The type of physical activity was of little significance” and they “described that they felt an inner calm after physical activity, an absence of anxiety and that they slept better.” I suspect that our students would say that they recognize the same thing. The Swedish students made a wise suggestion that physical activity be a larger part of the school day: “The adolescents also reported that they liked physical activity during school. Some participated in physical activities very late in the evenings, and this led to late bedtimes. Therefore, they suggested more physical activity to be scheduled during school hours. The adolescents specifically reported that they needed physical activity or else they would easily become sedentary during the day and have difficulties falling asleep at night.”
The study authors conclude that “overall…[teens] had trouble finding a balance between sleep and other activities.” I’m seeing this more than ever before, perhaps a “Roaring 20s” effect of life resuming post-pandemic-crisis. Experts have been calling sleep deprivation among adolescents “a major public health issue” for more than a decade now; here we’re doing some things right (e.g. starting school at 8:45 a.m.) but we have a long way to go in combining institutional measures and individual household norms to help adolescents get enough sleep.
Ms. Crandell 