Sleep

Did you enjoy the extra hour of sleep?  I definitely did... while I don't love how early it gets dark outside, I always like being able to have the benefit of the extra hour of sleep on the night of the time change.  The reality is I know that I am not the only one who needs more sleep.  "I'm so tired!"  It is a statement that I hear over and over again each day.  Often, I share the exact same feeling and the reality is that sleep is one of the best things we can do for ourselves and yet it is also something we frequently push aside.

The research about the importance of teen's getting sleep has frequently been touted and yet, as I talk to you, it is shocking for me to realize how little sleep many of you are getting.  Lack of sleep is not only exhausting, but it decreases your immune system, makes it more difficult to regulate your emotions, and can mimic the signs of ADHD.  

I wish it was as easy as saying you need to go to bed earlier, but for many of you, your schedules are so packed with homework, studying, jobs, sports, clubs, and other activities that it is hard to make everything fit into the window of time that you have between the end of the school day and a "reasonable" bedtime.  Additionally, many students have talked about the fact that it is hard for them to go to sleep once they go to bed because their mind races, they think of "one more thing" they need to do, or they lose track of time while texting late into the night.  And, although it isn't easy, sleep is important!

I am NOT a morning person and, quite honestly, I don't think I ever have been.  When my sister and I were in high school my mom set 9:00pm as our bedtime.  Every now and then we would argue that we should be allowed to have a later bedtime like all of our other friends and she would agree and say, "No problem, as soon as you can wake up in the morning without me having to say anything to you to wake up, then you can stay up later."  (FYI, my mom is really smart!)  She knew there was no way in the world we could successfully wake up without extra help because we were tired and needed the sleep.  We couldn't argue with her because she wasn't having us go to sleep earlier as a punishment - she was trying to help us get the amount of sleep that we needed.  Later, when I was in college and was getting WAY too little sleep, I would call my mom stressed and upset and she, with all her perfect motherly wisdom, would simply say, "Stop what you are doing and go to sleep."  She knew that I was too tired to think straight and that I wasn't doing a good job with studying or homework or whatever else I might have been working on at the time because I was exhausted.

While I am certainly not your mom and in no way am I saying that 9:00pm is the right bedtime for you, I do think that you could benefit from getting more sleep.  So, at least for now, enjoy the bonus of the extra hour of sleep from last night and try to plan accordingly so that you can continue to get as much extra sleep as possible every night.