our brains benefit from sleep. here’s why, and how parents can help teens get plenty of it - whiteboard with stand

Teenagers need sleep.
We have a lot of research on the harm of lack of sleep.
How it increases the risk of depression makes it difficult to regulate emotions, impair health, and impair cognitive functioning.
Teenagers already know this to some extent.
They may not be able to describe the neuroscience behind them, but they know the feeling of lack of sleep.
I have a seminar with middle school students on learning and brain.
The week we slept, they kept talking.
In our first event, they influenced their thinking, physical health and-with insufficient sleep-
The most exciting thing is
Emotional stability.
Here, how do they finish this sentence when I'm not sleeping enough. . .
"It is difficult to concentrate in class;
I can't concentrate.
I don't think so.
My body began to feel heavy.
I have a headache; I feel clumsy. I am grumpy;
My head spins with negative thoughts;
I yell or cry for no reason;
I am sensitive; I’m impatient;
My mood is not normal.
Or, as one girl concluded, "Everything gets harder when I'm not sleeping enough.
Knowing all this, however, does not necessarily mean a change in behavior.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says sleep deprivation in adolescents is a "critical public health problem" that poses a "serious risk" to physical and emotional health, academic success, and the safety of our national youth.
"In order to get the best features, teens need at least 8 hours of sleep per night, but they don't get it.
In fact, by Grade 12, 75 students reported sleeping less than 8 hours at school night, compared to 16 in grade 6graders.
When I was planning my workshop course, I thought of some of the things that the author of "how to be a happier parent" KJ dell's Gracia recently told me: "If you teach your child why sleep is important and what it can do for them, they can really want and learn to change.
In other words, we need to help our children find the motivation to change their behavior.
So instead of reminding my students of the terrible consequences of bad sleep habits, I try to talk about all the incredible things that happen in your mind when you sleep.
My goal is to show them that it's worth making small changes that can help you sleep a little longer and better --
Not only because you don't want to feel grumpy in the morning, but also because you want to be long
A semester gift that can only be sent by sleeping.
Benefits of sleep :-
We learn when we dream.
When you dream, your brain will be active with what you experience during the day --
Like neural virtual reality.
It connects the information with the information you already know, for review and rehearsal.
All of this strengthens your neural pathways and helps you learn.
In a study at Harvard Medical School, the researchers arranged a challenging computer maze for college students.
After the students struggled with it for a while, they took a nap.
Students who dream of the maze have significantly improved their ability to solve the maze.
One researcher suggested taking a nap after the study, or reviewing the notes before going to bed --
This may increase your chances of dreaming about this material.
Most people only remember a small part of their dreams, but you may benefit from them even if you don't remember your dreams. -
Sleep will "clean up" the brain.
When you sleep, your brain removes the information you don't need and consolidates what you learned that day.
This provides space for new learning.
After all, do you really need to remember what socks you wear, the jokes you heard during the first period, or what you ate for breakfast?
Neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin have found that many of our synapses contract at night when the brain removes or "forgets" information that is no longer needed.
It's not just memories that need to be cleaned up.
According to the National Institutes of Health, sleep also removes toxins accumulated during the day. -
Sleep can improve your academic performance.
Adequate sleep can improve recall rates, faster response times and smoother issuessolving.
In 1998 studies of 3,000 high school students, researchers at Brown University and the University of St. Cross found that students with an average grade of C, the average sleep time for D and F was 40 minutes later than for students with average A and B.
Recently, a Harvard Medical School study of college students found that there is a strong connection between "sleep law" and "sleep law --
That is to say, get a consistent amount of sleep at a consistent time-
And higher academic performance. -
Sleep can help you maintain your mood.
Sleep improves our ability to manage our emotions and cope with daily challenges.
Similarly, dreaming is part of this equation.
According to a study by the University of California, Berkeley, when we dream, we deal with and understand the emotional experience.
Sleep allows the almond body to work properly
This part of the brain can help control our emotional responses, including fear, anger, and anxiety.
It is difficult to look at the situation objectively when your almond body is tired, so small things can make people feel unbearable.
A study found that without adequate sleep, our response to neutral stimuli would be "exaggerated ". ”-
Sleep can improve your health and exercise performance.
Sleep can improve your immune system.
In a long list of health benefits, it makes you less sensitive to a common cold.
For athletes, sleep can improve response time and accuracy, reduce injury rates, and is closely related to achieving optimal performance.
Four ways to help your child improve sleep :-
Establish routine.
New parents are usually religious about bedtime routines.
Teenagers and adults can learn from how we deal with babies.
Our brains like daily activities, and doing certain activities in a certain order will remind the brain that sleep is coming.
Sleeping at the same time is also helpful. -
Pay attention to blue light and caffeine.
When the sun sets, our brains get colder.
Blue light from smartphones, tablets, computers and televisions will make it harder for your body to get into deep sleep, as it will disrupt the secretion of melatonin and help regulate the hormones we sleep onwake cycles. The workaround?
Get off at least 30 minutes before bed (
Put them outside your bedroom).
When you process them at night, dim the screen or put them in automatic night mode (
Called "night shift" on iphone ").
Because caffeine increases adrenaline.
Because it takes at least six hours to leave your system.
It's better to limit these drinks to the morning (if at all). -
Calm your brain down
Develop a strategy to appease the mind-
From guiding meditation to the exercise in which you focus on each muscle and relax.
Free meditation at the University of California, Los Angeles Awareness Resource Center is a good resource (
If you use these with headphones at night, turn off your screen-
Remember that blue light).
It is also worth noting that exercise during the day can improve the depth and quality of sleep. -
Control your night.
Many teenagers and adults want more sleep.
But we are really busy and have a lot of requirements for our time (
Homework, look at you).
There is no simple solution.
In addition to the workload, we live in an era of distraction.
When distractions keep interrupting our attention, it takes longer to complete even small tasks.
But there are many ways we can control our time more, so that we can finish things more efficiently and let ourselves have more time to sleep.
My favorite is the tomato working method.
First, select a task to complete and turn off all the interference
Text notification, email notification, etc.
Then set the timer for 25 minutes until the timer is off (
Several of my students use an app called Forest to help with this). Take a five-
Rest time: stretch your body, walk around, eat some snacks, etc.
After three or four, 25-
A minute apart and a longer rest (
15 to 30 minutes)to recharge.