Say 'No' to Bedtime Battles!

Hey, 🙋‍♀️

What’s up! All good?

I hope you had a good sleep last night. 😌

Ah! Sleep is such an undervalued thing, no? 😴 But, once, you know the value of it, you only regret the lost nights you spent wide awake…haha…😄

Netflix rightly stated with two of its famous quotes “you are an adult when weekend plans are all about good food and good sleep.” And “when Chanel bothers you less but a good blown-up mattress is all you keep looking for!”

I guess every human is fond of sleeping except ‘teenagers’. If you have ever noticed, I bet you know that a dark room doesn't mean your teen is asleep. There's a high chance that they are awake doing their own stuff. Does that make you worry about your teen’s sleep schedule? If yes, your concern is not baseless.

The reason behind the lack of sleep in teens is not only their academic pressure, co-curricular activities or late-night chats/games but also the Hormones. I believe you must be knowing about the circadian rhythm responsible for our body’s sleep-wake cycle. In teens, the body’s sleep clock resets itself to sleep late at night and get up late in the morning. The sleep neurohormone ‘melatonin’ is produced late at night in teens as compared to kids and adults. Read more here.

This cannot eliminate the other major factor from our radar i.e. glowy blue light that emits from electronic devices. According to Dr. Max Van Gilder (a paediatrician in Manhattan), those glowy blue lights have a certain frequency that hits the eye receptors which in response send a signal to the brain, reducing the formation of ‘melatonin’’ leaving the teens feeling less tired. Isn’t it fascinating? 😮

The ideal sleep time for teens is 8 to 10 hours of sleep each day. Getting insufficient sleep can impact your teen in various ways such as poor concentration and attention, drowsiness, fatigue, moodiness, aggression and chronic sleep deprivation in later life, etc.

Now, you must be thinking about how you can help your teen get enough sleep which is much needed after their long, active and tiring day. Well, you can opt for a number of ways but the first and foremost thing is to keep calm and accept the biological aspect of it. Let’s immediately jump to the ways that you can use to implement good bedtime habits in them.

• Encourage a Consistent Sleep Schedule: You can encourage your teen to establish a consistent sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. This helps regulate the body's natural sleep-wake cycle and ensures they get enough rest.

• Limit Electronics Before Bedtime: You can help your teen get enough sleep by limiting their use of electronic devices before bedtime. This includes reducing exposure to blue light, which can suppress melatonin production. Encourage them to stop using electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime.

• Create a Sleep-Conducive Environment: You can help your teen get enough sleep by creating a sleep-conducive environment. This means keeping the bedroom dark, cool, and quiet. Remove any distractions, such as TV, computer, or phone.

• Encourage Exercise: Regular physical activity can help improve sleep quality. You can encourage your teen to engage in physical activities such as playing sports, going for a walk, or doing yoga.

• Establish Bedtime Routines: You can help your teen establish bedtime routines that promote relaxation, induce sleep and prepare them for the next day. This could include taking a warm bath or shower, brushing teeth, polishing school shoes, reading a book/writing a journal, checking the next day’s timetable, listening to calming music, or meditating.

Oh…I got you. You must be thinking about how to create and track these bedtime habits, right? Don’t worry, we have already prepared a ‘bedtime habit card’ for you. Go grab it at our Trumsy store or you can order it from Amazon.

And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and spread the word among your friends and family!

Stay tuned for next week's edition, where we'll dig into some more cool and interesting ideas to help you in this journey of “parenting”.

Sending you good vibes,

Bonani Gupta

Counselling psychologist

Trumsy

Trumsy Corner:

• Podcast Alert: “Parents ki Paathshala”, Season 1, Episode 1: iPad Humari mata hai, aage kuch nahi aata hai. Listen now!

• Sneak peek at the Trumsy habit tracking cards” on Amazon

• Yes, Trumsy is free! Download our “habit-building app” on the Google play store and App store.

Trumsy Tip:

• To know about the cheat sheet on building soft skills right in your teen, give this article a read.

• Do give a read to know how to plan a ‘Movie Night’ with your teenager.