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Raising Night Owls

How to Save Your Teen from Sleep Deprivation

By Kelly Burgess

Even more troubling is the rate at which teens are involved in car accidents. How much of this is attributable to sleep deprivation?

What can a parent do to help their teen stay rested? It seems the ideal scenario would be to allow your teen to do nothing as if! Instead, help your teen take a look at his or her schedule and see how sleep can be fit in to cut down on incidences of sleep deprivation. Since energy levels usually dim in the afternoon, instead of coming home and plopping down on the computer for an hour to "chat" with friends, encourage your teenager to put up an away message and take a nap.

Even if you prefer not to have a strict bedtime, you can have a room curfew where your teen has to be in his or her room by a certain time. Banning TV, video games and computers after this time will encourage quiet activities that may encourage sleep. Will they like it? Probably not, but when was the last time they liked anything you did?

In addition, educate your child about sleep deprivation, particularly as he heads toward the college years. If you know he's tired, don't let him drive, and explain why. As he heads toward college, hopefully this lesson will sink in enough, and he'll be less likely to make dumb decisions when he's sleep deprived.