Strategies to Help Teens Get Enough Sleep

It is common for primary care providers to evaluate teens with behavior issues that stem from a lack of sleep. These behavior issues may include poor school performance, lower grades, difficulty paying attention, sluggishness and moodiness. It’s important that providers take a good history, which includes a thorough sleep history, to delineate what may be inciting these symptoms.

Listen to a pediatrician discuss strategies to help teens get enough sleep

In this episode, we talk with developmental behavioral pediatrician Adiaha Spinks-Franklin, MD, from Texas Children’s Hospital about strategies to help sleepless teens.

Dr. Spikes-Franklin is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

This episode was recorded live from the 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In this episode, our expert discusses:

• Common presentations that primary care providers will see in adolescents with sleep issues
• The importance of the patient’s history in determining the causes of symptoms
• The various factors involved in regulating sleep, including the homeostatic and circadian drive
• The difference between rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep and the physiological processes of each
• How sleep changes from childhood to adolescence
• Consideration of both the genetic and environmental components of sleep disorders
• How social media activity negatively impacts natural sleep rhythms
• What parents can do to mitigate some of the environmental hindrances of sleep such as electronics
• Maintaining a teen’s circadian rhythm by not allowing them to sleep in during weekends
• Examples of breathing techniques to help calm down hyperactive or anxious kids
• The benefits of gratitude journaling and general journaling before bed
• Encouraging parents to prioritize their children’s needs around night sports and adrenaline
• What family dinners and bedtime routines reveal about a household
• Thoughts on medicating sleep disorders and how melatonin should be approached

Treatment of sleep conditions at Children’s Hospital Colorado

Children’s Colorado’s Sleep Center provides comprehensive clinics to evaluate patients and to make appropriate treatment recommendations so the entire family can return to an optimal night of sleep. Our team assists primary care providers and specialists with the diagnosis and treatment of infants, children and adolescents with sleep problems.