Why has it got harder to get to sleep?

During your teenage years, your sleep cycle is different to when you are a young child or an adult.

You may find yourself being called lazy or sloth-like, seemingly unwilling to get up in the morning when the alarm clock shouts. But… you are not lazy!

Brain changes

It’s a less known fact that, when you hit adolescence, changes happen in the brain as you grow and develop.

Some of these changes make you more likely to produce the sleep hormone melatonin later at night; meaning you don’t feel sleepy until the early hours.

This shifts your body clock forward in time, meaning your bedtime and wake-time typically become about 2 hours later than before.

Struggles falling asleep

You may struggle with falling asleep at an appropriate hour, feel the need for lengthy lie-ins at the weekend, and find it harder to wake up in the morning.

If it’s been hard to get to sleep until well into the night, and the school day starts early for you, you may have to get up before your body has had enough sleep. So of course you will feel tired!

This has a knock-on effect: being overtired makes it even more difficult to fall asleep!

Consistent sleep

You can’t change the time that school starts, but what you can do is have a consistent sleep and wake up time to help your body to cope better with the early mornings.

As an adolescent, you need approximately 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night, but this can vary by person and for some this can be as little as 7 hours, or as much as 11 hours.

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Page last reviewed: 7 February, 2024