What Your Teen and You Really Need: Sleep

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What improves alertness, memory, concentration, creativity, communication, mood, weight, immunity, and reaction time?  No, it’s not some magic pill, some newly discovered herb, or some powerful vitamin combination.  It is, quite simply, sleep.

Apparently most people in North America do not get enough sleep to function optimally, and high school students are among the more seriously sleep-deprived groups. Therefore they suffer from reduced memory, reduced concentration, reduced learning ability, reduced creativity, worse moods, lowered immunity, and so much more…. And all of these things are the opposite of what we are working for!

So, here we home schooling moms are, putting all sorts of effort into our children’s futures, and their success could be minimized for lack of a simple, old-fashioned bedtime! 

How would we know if they, or we, are sleep deprived?  There are many criteria, but if anyone regularly falls asleep within 5 minutes of getting into bed, needs an alarm clock (and a snooze button) to get up, feels drowsy while driving, feels mentally-slow and stressed out a lot of the time, or loves to nap and sleep in, he most likely is not getting all the sleep his body needs.   

In a culture that regards sleep almost as a waste of time, it is common to hear about ways to reduce the amount of sleeping we do in order to finish our huge to-do lists.  On the other hand, according to Power Sleep  by James Maas, those who learn to regard sleep as an investment in their awake time, and learn how to improve their quality of sleep are often astonished by how  alert they feel after 4-6 weeks of adequate sleep.  “Their increased efficiency gives them enough hours in the day to work, and to play.  They become better spouses, better parents, and better in their careers.  They become more energetic, healthier, more successful, and happier with their lives.”  (page xviii)

In terms of Proverbs, they no longer are like the sluggard:  craving sleep, lethargic, foolish, and unmotivated to work.  Rather, they are like the person mentioned in Ecclesiastes 10:10 who sharpens his dull axe and can work effectively.

After years of listening to the ‘cut down on your sleep’ gurus, I have learned to value sleep.  Adequate sleep does give more energy, and, in the long run, it allows me to do my work more effectively and more happily.  It is true that the hours I sleep are an investment in the rest of my life.

So I will be teaching my teens about sleep, after ensuring that they get enough of it.  I will continue to make sleep a priority in my own life as well because I, too, want to be “wide awake, creative, and dynamic all day long” (p 66). 

When sleep seems like a waste of time, I will remember Ps 127: 2

“In vain you rise early and stay up late,

Toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.” 

When I am worried, I hope to be able to say with the psalmist, David,

“I will lie down and sleep in peace,

for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”(Ps 4:8)

For those who are unable to sleep, check out the book mentioned above; it has a list of sleep strategies and a discussion of sleep disorders.  I could list some of the sleep rules and strategies in another post if anyone is interested. 

See you on Tuesday for another Tea Time with Annie Kate, and maybe earlier if I sleep enough to get all my other work done!