2-Minute Sleep Tip: Understanding Your Night Owl

One of the reasons that teens are set up for sleep issues is that there is a normal, expected 2-hour delay in their body clock (or circadian rhythm) that occurs around puberty.

What could a delayed, out-of-sync clock look like in your teen?

• Your teen is groggy and exhausted after waking in the morning and has no appetite for breakfast

• Your teen doesn’t feel fully alert and struggles to focus until mid-late morning (or sometimes later)

• Your teen feels most alert, is most productive, and often has peak energy levels in the late night/early morning hours

This expected delay of the body clock in the teen years can fuel major problems, but there are things you can do to help.

Gaining insight into your teen’s current rhythm is step one.

Today's 2-Minute Action:

1. Open up the clock app on your phone and toggle to the world clock option.
2. Based on your teen’s current rhythms, estimate which equivalent time zone they may be in. For example, if your teen's ideal sleep time seems to be between 1am and 10am, they are about 3 hours behind.
3. Now choose a city in this time zone and add it to your phone. For example, if you live in Toronto (EST), your teen may be on Vancouver time (PST) if they are running 3 hours behind (see below).
4. Reference this clock over the next few days to gain insight into how an out-of-sync body clock is impacting your teen.

All the Best,

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For More:

Listen to Find the Eight Episode #5: Your Body Clock Out-Of-Sync?

Next Week's Tip:

In addition to the natural delay of the body clock in the teen years, modern culture & our light-saturated environment make it easy for the clock to run even later. In next week’s newsletter, we'll talk about a simple step you can take to help your teen from shifting even later.

A friendly note if you not are a parent of teens: You may have noticed that this newsletter doesn’t sound like it’s written for you. Though I hope you'll still find the ideas and tips helpful, if you wish to unsubscribe, no hard feelings at all! If you know any parents of teens who might benefit from these tips, please share my website where they can sign up for this newsletter.

NOTE: The content and all linked materials in this newsletter provide general information about sleep and insomnia and are not intended to replace medical advice from a qualified healthcare provider. The provided content should not be relied upon for medical diagnosis or management. Please direct questions or concerns to your physician and/or qualified health care provider.