Helping Kids Sleep: Ages 11-18

Too Wired, Too Tired

Parents may be relieved to know that teens and tweens with night-owl tendencies are completely normal. Biological changes during late childhood push teens to stay up later at night and sleep in.

There’s another reason many teens and tweens get significantly less sleep than the recommended nine hours per night. Millions of teens are permanently tuned in to smartphones, laptops, tablet computers and other devices that keep them awake around the clock. Steven Kadiev, sleep medicine specialist at Charlotte Medical Clinic, recommends keeping all electronics (yes, even cell phones) out of kids’ bedrooms at night. Wake your sleepy teen anytime he snoozes more than two hours past normal wake-up time to help maintain a regular sleep-wake schedule and promote healthy sleep cycles.

> Helping Kids Sleep: Ages 0-10

Malia Jacobson is a nationally published health writer and mom of two. She blogs about sleep and family health at thewellrestedfamily.com.