Teenage Insomnia

Very few teenagers can honestly say that they enjoy waking up bright and early for school, but for many teens this morning exhaustion is not their fault. New studies conducted by universities such as the University of Texas Health Science Center found that teenage insomnia is becoming an increasingly more serious issue.

In the March edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers found that insomnia was as common in teenagers as problems such as substance abuse, depression and ADHD. Their study was conducted with 3,134 participants over an extended period of time (12 months) to monitor the effects of sleeplessness on adolescents. Participants ranged in age from eleven to seventeen.

Over the course of the study, not only did they monitor to see which participants consistently had insomnia, but how that insomnia impacted their life. They found that participants with chronic insomnia were found to be five times as likely to consider themselves in poor mental health. They were also three times as likely to have health and school related problems, and twice as likely to abuse substances such as marijuana and cocaine.

The recommended amount of sleep for a teenager to function healthily is nine hours, however teenagers with insomnia were found to sleep restlessly five hours at the most. One participant in the study, Estrella, has other conditions accompanying her insomnia. She also suffers from sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome. Currently, her treatment plan consists of cognitive behavioral therapy and sticking to a strict sleeping schedule to get her body accustomed to sleeping. She isn't taking any medication, due to the fact that there are a limited number of insomnia drugs approved for teenage use. Doctors also debate if they're necessary, making research aimed at understanding teenage insomnia very important.

Teenage insomnia is still a relatively new field of research, and little is know about the teenage brain as it is, let alone a tired teenage brain. In light of this new knowledge, Mary Carskadon of Brown University has launched a new study to research the causes of teenage insomnia, and how the "internal clock" of teenagers works.