It is an undeniable fact: When your body doesn’t have enough hours to rest, you may feel tired or cranky, or you may be unable to think clearly.
You might have a hard time following directions, or you might have an argument with a friend over something really stupid. A school assignment that’s normally easy may feel impossible, or you may feel clumsy playing your favorite sport or instrument. And, unfortunately, as a result of the current pandemic, sleep is a lacking commodity for most of us.
Another important fact: Most kids between ages 5 and 12 get about 9.5 hours a night, but experts agree that most need 10 or 11 hours each night. Sleep is an individual thing and some kids need more than others.
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Final fact: Studies have linked sleep deprivation with mood swings and reduced cognitive function, including concentration difficulties, lower test scores and a drop in overall school performance. Poor sleep also is associated with poor eating habits and obesity.
Nowadays, as a result of the pandemic, many parents are sleep-deprived themselves and think the symptoms of sleep deprivation are completely normal. They are not!
I would like to focus on the fact that while adults suffering from sleep loss have low energy, our children are often hyperactive. This coupled, with attention and concentration problems makes it challenging to get through academic tasks. As well, sleep deprived children can be more irritable and have lower frustration tolerance. What this means is that they might argue with their parents who are struggling with being their kids’ new teachers. Then there is the inevitable parent-child conflicts and parents trying to deal with their children having issues with mood and focus. These can result in havoc on academic functioning while children try to learn from home during the pandemic.
Past reports by the American Academy of Pediatrics on the sleep needs of our youth provided us with the knowledge that kids are not trying to be difficult. It is simply that they are being asked to do the exact opposite of what their bodies are designed to do at this stage of their development.
What I’d like you to focus on for a minute is how this lack of sleep can influence mental health and substance use.
Chronic lack of sleep can affect mood in significant ways. We can all attest to the grumpiness and lack of patience we feel when we have been up too late or need to get up too early. Our guard is down, our temper can be short, and we don’t think clearly or necessarily act rationally.
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For those who are prone toward mental illness or substance use disorders, lack of sleep can be dangerous. Alcoholics Anonymous clearly recognizes the danger lack of sleep poses to those in recovery, as individuals are advised to “HALT” before making any decisions when they are hungry, angry, lonely or tired.
What’s an adolescent to do when his or her body is begging for sleep, but schedules and pandemic-related issues do not allow it? Why, take stimulants, of course! Energy drinks are the caffeine delivery device of choice for youth (although caffeine tablets are making a strong comeback), and prescription stimulants are all too common on college campuses. Whereas we all know adults who need that cup of coffee to get them going, it is usually one (sometimes quite large) cup of coffee. Teens fuel up with energy drinks several times more potent than coffee and drink them in sizes approaching a quart or take pills to override their body’s needs.
Let’s follow this through. If adolescents stay up too late, then get up too early on a regular basis, they resort to high levels of caffeine to make it through the day. When it is time to go to sleep, they can’t because they are wired.
Too many students then take one of two dangerous paths. Some will double down on their stimulants, so they can go out with friends to “relax.” Though by the end of the week they are so tired all they really want to do is crash. By relax, they typically mean drinking alcohol, which only makes them more tired – so they need to mix their vodka with Red Bull.
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Other students, who are so wired from excess caffeine and lack of sleep, are too on edge to sleep even when they want to. So they need to take Xanax, Valium, or Ambien in order to fall asleep – only to need more stimulants like Adderall or Ritalin to get back up and function the next day. In both cases, these are unhealthy vicious cycles that can lead to mental health issues and addiction.
Perhaps prevention needs to take a different tack. Instead of advocating for parents to talk to their children about drugs, maybe they should be talking to their school boards about setting schedules conducive to healthy sleep patterns. Obviously, this is an oversimplification, but maybe students would resort less to “better living through chemistry” if their environments supported naturally focused and relaxed states of being – all from a good night’s sleep.
Ezra Helfand is CEO/Executive Director of the Wellspring Center for Prevention. You can reach him at ezra.helfand@wellspringprevention.org.