Counteracting adolescent
sleep difficulties
Dr Gaby Illingworth and Dr Rachel Sharman
Sleeping to learn
“If sleep doesn’t serve some vital function, it
is the biggest mistake evolution ever made”
Prof. Allan Rechtschaffen
• Memories are encoded and consolidated during sleep
• Sleep deprivation impairs attention and concentration
• Adolescents lose up to 120 minutes of sleep per night during
term time comparative to the summer holidays (Hansen et al., 2005)
• Self-reported sleepiness, poorer sleep quality, and shorter sleep
duration associate with poorer school performance (Dewald et al.,
2010)
The two processes that drive sleep
Sleep drive
What
controls
when we
sleep?
Social and work commitments
Body clock
How does the body clock keep time?
As darkness arrives, our body begins to make a hormone
called melatonin which can make us feel ready for sleep.
Our body makes more during sleep and it is destroyed by
the morning light which helps us wake up.
The main body clock is found in the brain but there are
also little clocks found all over the body. The main clock
tells the little clocks what time it is and when to rest or
be active.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
?
Everybody has a preferred time to sleep and wake,
you can be a morning person, an evening person, or
somewhere in-between
Sleep changes during adolescence
The two processes in adolescence
The sleep drive is
more resilient to
sleep debt so
teenagers can stay
awake longer
Changes to
adolescent
sleep
Social commitments - FOMO
The body clock
delays by 1–3
hours.
Teenagers
become jet
lagged.
A double whammy? Physiology and behaviour!
www.gifmeabreak.com
So why is this an issue?
• Sleeping at the wrong time or getting light at the wrong time
can cause confusion between the clocks in the body
• This can result in poor quality sleep leading to
•
•
•
•
Fatigue
Mood irregularities
Poor performance
Illness including
• Cancer
• Type 2 diabetes
• Depression
Sleep loss may make you appear less attractive to others and others
appear more attractive to you – “beer goggle effect”
Akram, U., Ellis, J. G., Myachykov, A. and Barclay, N. L. (2016), Misperception of tiredness in young adults with insomnia.
J Sleep Res, 25: 466–474.
What is sleep hygiene?
IT’S NOT about making sure you are
sleeping in clean sheets before bed!
IT IS about habits and practices
(things you do) before sleep that can
help promote good sleep.
Food and the body clock
?
• The clock can be influenced by food so
what and when we eat are important
− Hunger disrupts sleep but so does
digestion
− Some foods contain melatonin
derivatives so promote sleep
− Some foods are converted to
stimulants so best avoided
− Hidden sources of caffeine can impact
sleep!
Foods that make
melatonin
Milk
Yoghurt
Eggs
Bananas
Orange
Cherries
Broccoli
Chicken
Peanut butter
Foods that help
melatonin reach the
brain
Porridge oats
Shredded Wheat
Wholewheat pasta
Brown rice
Wholegrain bread
Oatcakes
Sweet potatoes
Peas
Baked beans
Caffeine – a legal stimulant
Caffeine is one of the world’s
most widely used stimulants
• It’s found in food, drinks, and medicines
• Caffeine can aid memory before tests
but taken at the wrong time, it can stop
us sleeping
• Avoid caffeine six hours before bed
• The caffeine limit for adolescents is
100mg per day (for adults it’s 300–
400mg)
Item
Cup of tea
Green tea
Hot chocolate
Mug of filter coffee
Large Starbucks Americano
De-caffeinated coffee
Can of Relentless\Monster energy
drink
Can of Coke (diet, zero, or regular)
Can of Dr Pepper
Can of Fanta, Sprite, Lilt
Can of Red Bull
Lucozade
Small bag of M&Ms
Chocolate ice cream
Chocolate breakfast cereal
Small bar of dark chocolate
Kit Kat
Mars bar
ProPlus tablet
Caffeine per
serving in mg
50
25
16
140
225
8
160
32
39
0
77
46
6
2
2
50
6
10
50
Light and sleep
School
The teenage body clock is
delayed by one to three hours.
This means that at 9am, the
master clock in the brain may
think it is 6am.
It will tell all the little clocks
around the body that it is 6am.
Light and sleep
School
However, if you get daylight
within an hour of waking up,
this can re-set the master
clock in the brain which will
then re-set the little clocks
around the body.
You will feel more awake!
Light and sleep
Home
Light at night can trick the
master clock into thinking
it is earlier.
The master clock will then tell
this incorrect time to all the
little clocks around the body.
You will feel more awake and
this will stop you sleeping!
Media use and sleep
1
Some cells in our eye are particularly sensitive to blue
light. These cells tell the body clock the time.
Electronic devices which emit light give out a high
amount of blue light.
2
The noise of getting instant messages or texts
throughout the night can disrupt your sleep.
3
If you go to sleep waiting for a reply to a message,
you are likely to have lighter sleep as you are
unconsciously waiting to hear the notification sound.
Thoughts and emotions at bedtime
We all know that feeling, when we get
into bed and can’t stop thinking about
the work due next week, the football
match, or the birthday tomorrow.
Stress, worry, or excitement can stop us
sleeping or cause sleep to become
lighter and disturbed.
www.liannedias.com
Letting go
It’s a skill that takes practice.
Breathing exercises
Deep or slow breathing techniques work
by telling the body to enter a “rest and
digest” state
− blood pressure decreases
− pulse rate slows
7-11 breathing exercise
Step 1
Breathe in for a count of seven
Make sure your breaths are deep
(your diaphragm moves down and pushes
your stomach out as you take in a breath)
Step 2
Hold your breath for a moment
rather than shallow (higher lung
breathing).
Continue for five minutes or longer if you
Step 3
Breathe out for a count of eleven
have time.
Progressive muscle relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation involves a
two-step process in which you tense and
then relax main muscle groups in the body
− Can lower overall tension and stress
levels
− Decreases muscle activity, blood
pressure
and heart rate
Progressive muscle relaxation
Distraction techniques
• Thought-blocking can help people deal with
repetitive thoughts which stop them from sleeping
− Works best with trivial, unimportant thoughts,
like when we get a song stuck in our head
− Repeat the word “the” every two seconds to
yourself with your eyes closed
• Visualisation, or guided imagery, involves creating a
mental image which makes you feel at peace
Guided imagery
Which imagery story could you use?
Creating the sleep friendly bedtime routine
Relaxing, or letting go, can give you a calmer approach to life in
general as well as helping with your sleep. It’s good to dedicate time
each night to relax and wind down for sleep.
The bedtime from
my sleep schedule
I should start preparing
for bed
is______________
at______________
Contact:
[email protected]
www.teensleep.org.uk