Most teenagers are hard wired by their circadian rhythms to
be night owls. It is one of the ways
their body and brains are changing. The
big problem with this is that most schools start very early in the
morning. Some high schools start before
the sun has even risen! So what is a
teenage night owl to do? For starters,
read my earlier posts on tips for getting a good night’s sleep because those
will be important. The hard part though
is how to shift your internal clock to be able to go to bed and then get up
early.
First, try some experiments to see just how much sleep you
actually need. Most teenagers will need
between 8- 9 hours a night. On a
Saturday night, make note of the time that you are going to bed, don’t set your
alarm and let your body wake up naturally on Sunday. This will give you an indication of how much
sleep your body needs. I suggest doing
this on Saturday night to Sunday morning because most teens are so tired by
the end of the week their bodies will need more sleep than usual on Friday
night.
Once you have an idea of how much sleep you need, then
decide what is the latest that you can get up in the morning and not be late
for school. I suggest doing whatever can
be done the night before when you are more awake and have the energy. This means picking out your clothes, packing
your bag, making your lunch, and even showering. It is better to do these things at night when
you are awake then trying to do them in the morning when your body just wants
to sleep. This will let you get more
sleep in the morning.
Here is an example. I
know that my body needs 9 hours of sleep.
I have to be at school at 7:30 am. It will take me 30 minutes to get ready and
15 minutes to drive there. I need to be
up then by 6:45 am. If I need 9 hours of sleep, then I should be
in bed by 9:45 pm.
If you are used to going to bed late it can be hard to try
to go to bed that early, so I suggest taking steps of moving your bed time
back. If you usually go to bed at midnight, then try 11:30 or 11 pm. The next night try 10:45 or 10:30. Keep doing this until you are at the time you
need to be in bed. It can be very
tempting to then on the weekend stay up super late because you know you don’t
have to be up early the next morning, but I would suggest avoiding this. That will make it really hard then to go to
bed on Sunday night and get up early on Monday morning. It is okay to stay up a little later on
Friday and Saturday night, but you don’t want to do it by several hours.
Your body will still want to be up at night, so that is why
it will be very important to follow the other tips that I have written about,
e.g. limiting exposure to light etc.
It may sound like a lot of work, but if you can get yourself
getting to bed earlier you will feel better in the morning and it will be worth
it!
