Life was so much easier before the advent of all the electronic aids and entertainment venues that are available for today’s teenagers. Sleeping following the days exertions naturally and no doubt on some occasions, thankfully! Today that has changed forever with the arrival of mobile phones, facebook, twitter the list goes on.

Sleep deprivation is very real and may be the cause of inhibiting physical and mental health. Teenagers sleeping habits if not ingrained in them as young children can cause no end of problems, as they grow older. Sleep in puberty is extremely important, teenagers need good sleeping habits established by this time in their life. Sleep gives the brain the ability to renew and regenerate itself, we know this to be true when getting up in the morning feeling great from a good nights sleep or feeling exhausted from a bad night.

Sleeping problems cannot be isolated but must be considered as part of the whole life style balance and routine. Young people live life to the full using up as many hours in a day as they can physically do during the week. Staying up late most nights during the week just to have the weekend “sleep ins’, sleeping until the late morning
early afternoon. This causes problems in sleeping normally, and becomes harder to remedy as the weeks go by.

The obvious lack of exercise sitting in front of a television screen or a computer a teenager does not  encourage sleeping anymore than eating the wrong foods, particularly the junk foods. Teenager’s ability to graze on any number of processed foods manufactured today is well-documented causing weight to increase and before long insomnia. It is accepted that for some people the early morning is their prime time for activity and problem solving, while others reach their physical and mental capacities later in the day. This is often reflected in sleeping patterns, these patterns are formed from birth and alert parents will soon work out which side of the coin their child is likely to favor. This means the child can be encouraged to work within their body’s needs.

However today’s world demands that everyone work within society’s requirements and not those of an individual, this can affect each person as needs are different. Trying to tell a teenager to go to bed is a waste of time, they have to understand and be encouraged to take personal responsibility for their own health and well-being. Compromising on social activity, may give parameters to work with and provide much needed rest, while keeping them popular in their perceived social group?

Encourage regular meals of healthy food, exercise and a balance of social activities and your teenagers will thank you for loving them, then again you may be the worst parents in the world in their opinion, but at least you will have tried!