How to tell if your teen needs a rest
NEW research suggests British teenagers are getting up earlier and going to bed later than their forebears, with relatively few notching up the advised eight hours a night.
These telltale signs will help you see whether they need a bit more kip.
COUNTING THE HOURS
The NHS advises each of us to get between six and nine hours a night – adding that the best sleep comes from a regular bedtime schedule.
POOR COGNITIVE FUNCTION
During the night, we need “several cycles of deep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep to maintain normal thinking and decision making,” explains Dr John O’Reilly, consultant physician with sleep health company SleepHubs.
“During deep sleep the lymphatic system literally washes the brain clean of waste products which build up in the day, leading to progressive fatigue and sleepiness. REM sleep is also when important memories and learning are retained and consolidated into long-term memory.”
SKIN PROBLEMS
YOUR body uses the time you spend asleep to repair your body, and studies have shown skin recovery to be 30% more effective in people with consistent, high quality sleep patterns.
EYE BAGS
EYE bags can signal an allergic reaction, and are commonly a sign of ageing. For teenagers, the purple bags probably reveal they’ve been up all night. But eye bags can also be hereditary, so some folk are born that way.
GRUMPINESS
SLEEP deprived people tend to be ponderous and irritable in the mornings. So if they seem to be having a case of the Mondays every day, the problem probably rests with the night before.
WEIGHT GAIN
STUDIES have shown that people getting less than seven hours of slumber can be at higher risk of becoming overweight or obese. According to the NHS: “It’s believed to be because sleepdeprived people have reduced levels of leptin (the chemical that makes you feel full) and increased levels of ghrelin (the hungerstimulating hormone).”