Everyone knows sleep is essential to the human body, yet many young people still think they can hack their natural sleep cycles for greater efficiency and productivity. This rarely works. Instead of trying to change your sleep cycle or sleep pattern, consider these best tips to improve sleep for teens. You’ll see that with some basic lifestyle changes, your sleep quality will improve tremendously.
Limit Screen Time
Electronics are some of the most prevalent distractions from quality sleep today. Just about everyone faces this issue at some point in their lives, so it’s not limited to teens. However, teenagers and young adults are the most susceptible demographic for nighttime electronic use.
The issue is the artificial light that electronics emit. This blue-light illumination disrupts your melatonin production, making your brain think it’s still daytime. One tip is to limit your nighttime electronic usage or put away all electronics about half an hour before bed. Setting limits on screentime is one of the many ways to fall asleep faster.
Avoid Caffeine Before Bed
Another common habit among young people is consuming too much caffeine too close to bedtime. Even if you don’t intentionally plan to stay awake past your normal bedtime, caffeine often remains in your system for four to five hours.
The best time to drink or consume caffeinated drinks or foods is in the morning or midday. That way, your body comes down from the stimulation through a notable “caffeine crash.” As you come down from your stimulation, your body begins to slow, and you feel more tired than before. Use this to your advantage to quickly fall asleep.
Don’t Pull All-Nighters
It’s tempting to pull an all-nighter to cram for an upcoming test when in high school. However, one of the best tips to improve sleep for teens is to avoid all-nighters completely. For one, it messes with your natural energy. Pulling an all-nighter may sound practical in theory, but in reality, you feel drowsier and more lethargic the next day. This makes it an unreliable study method, especially for an upcoming exam.
Another reason to avoid all-nighters is you don’t retain the information you absorb. High schoolers often believe that an all-nighter can help them cram information in a short period. Instead, you negatively affect thinking, memory, and performance. You absorb more information through multiple days of study for a few hours each time than with one all-nighter.