So, let me begin by admitting, I am a worrier. Always have
been, and I expect, always will be. These days we call it anxiety, but
when I was growing up, I was just considered a big worrier. My mom said
it's because I care very much about things, which made me feel like it was a
good thing! These days I worry a lot about ... your children (and my
children). I worry that our digital age is wreaking havoc on our young
people's hearts and minds, and I get incredibly overwhelmed in trying to figure
out how to make it better. It is an issue that is waaaaaay bigger than
any one person, so I am trying to look at how we at KRMS can help in any small
way possible. I feel that a big step in the right direction was our
updated cellphone policy that I spoke about in my last blog post on December 3
.... if you missed it, be sure to check it out. My next focus is on the
issue of cellphones in our children's bedrooms, so here I go.
Sleep. Sweet, beautiful,
brain growing, re-energizing, immune boosting, stress relieving, hormone
balancing, cell repairing sleep. Our children are not getting enough of
it, and it is affecting their well-being in all kinds of ways. (Please
look here to read about what I, as a School Counselor, am
seeing as a result of sleep deprivation.) Let's start by acknowledging
that a middle schooler's sleep pattern is in flux -- when boys and girls hit
puberty, their biological clock shifts to a preference for evenings, and this
shift will last until about age 20. During this phase, melatonin
production (the sleep hormone) is produced later in the evenings - usually
around 10:30 or 11:00, and remains elevated later in the mornings, which is why
adolescents are so difficult to wake up! To compare it to us adults, an
adolescent waking up at 6:30am is comparable to an adult having to wake up at
4:30am or earlier. (I have more compassion for my teenage boys
already.) Our middle schoolers need from 9 to 11 hours of sleep a night,
and from the conversations I have with students, most kids are getting at
least 2 hours less than that a night.
The biological clock shift is
certainly a culprit, but I am concerned about the effect that screen time has
on our kids' sleep habits. It's not just the irresistible pull of Instagram,
SnapChat, TickTock, Twitter, YouTube, etc, etc that is keeping our kids up
later, it is the blue light that is emitted from our electronics that is a
problem as well. When the blue light frequency hits receptors in the eye,
a signal is sent to the brain which suppresses the production of
melatonin and keeps a child from feeling tired. I know many
students who take melatonin supplements to help them fall asleep and stay
asleep ... maybe we can help their bodies produce it more effectively to begin
with by limiting their exposure to screens in the evenings. Kids are up
at all hours of the night chatting, checking social media, or using the
internet, unable to limit themselves from these distractions, and creating a
stimulating environment which inhibits their ability to fall asleep. If
you have not done so already, it is time to develop some enforceable limits
around technology and sleep.
A very reasonable and
easy-to-enforce rule is to have your child charge her phone (or other device) overnight outside
of the bedroom. I know many families who have a family charging
station in the kitchen where everyone parks their respective devices for the
evening. Not only does this keep them from the middle-of-the-night
texting that can really throw off a person's sleep, but it keeps that blue
light from emitting in their room. You are likely to hear the argument
that they need to listen to music to fall asleep, or they need it for their
alarm ... but honestly, it was not that long ago that we had to ability to
listen to music or set an alarm without the invention of the smartphone.
I'm willing to bet you have that old school technology lying around somewhere
in your house, and if not, it's awfully cheap nowadays. It's definitely
worth it to get an alternative in your child's room.
All of that being said, any
top-down directive will likely be met with resistance. It is always a
good idea to involve your middle schooler in setting up these new rules around
a sleep plan, keeping in mind that you cannot force your child to sleep.
Having a conversation about the bigger picture - what kinds of things your
child wants to achieve in life, and how those things are fueled by sleep - can
bring you together on what is reasonable and why. And maybe, just maybe,
you can work towards making bedrooms device-free altogether :-)
There is a Tech Talk Tuesday
blog post on this same topic that you can read here. Sleep deprivation is such a serious concern
that I am seeing so much more of ... please talk to me if you need help in
addressing this issue with your child. And please share any ideas or
successes you may have in the Comments section!! Thank you!
No comments:
Post a Comment