Teenagers have always had a love-hate relationship with sleep, but the explosion of texting and Instagram-ing has created a generation of kids who now crawl into bed with their tablet, cell phone, or laptop and stay up until the wee hours chatting with friends. This phenomenon has been coined ‘vamping’, inspired by the nocturnal habits of vampires.
It’s not surprising that teens tend to use these late-night hours to connect with friends and relax, explains Michael McKenna, MD, a pediatrician at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health. “They are so busy with clubs and sports, then they come home and have dinner and have to complete hours of homework,” he says. “They deserve a chance to relax and recharge, but they often can’t take a breath to catch up with their friends until 10:30 or later.”
The problem, Dr. McKenna says, is that if teens stay up until midnight or later staring at a screen or texting with friends, and then have to get up early for school, it cuts off their sleep at both ends. “Teens need a lot more sleep than they or their parents realize,” he says. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers need 8 to 10 hours of sleep, though studies show only about 15 percent get that much on school nights.
Choosing the screen over sleep has both short- and long-term health consequences, says Dr. McKenna. “Teens are already at risk as drivers, and if they’re sleep-deprived, they’ll have more accidents. Lack of sleep also makes it harder to cognitively process ideas and remember things, so it can impact their academic performance,” he explains, adding that long-term sleep-deprivation has been shown to raise an individual’s risk for obesity, cancer, and heart disease.
A complete ban on cell phones is as unrealistic as it is unfair, says Dr. McKenna, who points out that, like it or not, they are the primary motor for teenagers’ social lives. In fact, a recent survey by the Pew Research Group found that just 25 percent of teens spend time with their friends in person (other than in school) on a daily basis. For the vast majority, texting was their main form of communication, and 70 percent of those teens said they feel better connected to their friends’ feelings through social media.
Instead, Dr. McKenna suggests you sit down with your teenager and make a workable plan together. If your child is busy with sports practice, music lessons, and homework until 10pm, say, then suggest he can chill on the phone with friends until 11 before plugging in to a charger in the kitchen or living room. And, most importantly, parents must put their phones down at the curfew, too.
For younger children, says Dr. McKenna, it’s also reasonable to set up their account so that all of their text messages go directly to your phone too, so you can keep an eye not only on the appropriateness of content, but how late they’re up sending and receiving messages. “As they get older, they can earn more privacy through good behavior,” says Dr. McKenna. “You just want to set your kids up with good habits now to follow when they are in college and beyond.”
Source: news hub