Historically, teenagers struggle with sleep–throw in a pandemic, virtual learning, constant access to social media, and you have a recipe for sleep disaster. Sarah Hughes, school counselor intern this semester, met with me to share some shut-eye suggestions.

West Wind: We came here together to talk about sleep. Why do you think sleep is important?

Hughes: “Sleep affects not only how much energy you have, but it also has an impact on how you are in the classroom and affects your ability to learn in the classroom. When you’re in class, it makes you more attentive. It is important because it also impacts your growth and how you develop physically. You’re much healthier when you get more sleep”

West Wind: How much sleep would you recommend for teens?

 Hughes: “9 – 9 ½ hours is recommended, but it also depends on your body.”

West Wind: Can you ever get too much sleep?

Hughes: “Actually, you probably could because on the weekends… Sometimes you like to stay up later; your body can catch up on sleep, but it can’t store sleep. So if you miss sleep, you can kind of catch up on that if you sleep a lot on the weekend and then you go back to not sleeping steadily on a Monday.”

West Wind: Do you think that teens are getting enough sleep?

Hughes: “I think that you can tell if you aren’t getting enough sleep if you have a hard time waking up in the morning. If you’re having trouble concentrating in class, on the job, and falling asleep during class, that is a sign that you’re not getting enough sleep. If you are feeling irritable, moody, sad, or seem depressed… You can tell when someone doesn’t have a lot of sleep because they’re grouchy.”

West Wind: What do you think is the main cause of lack of sleep?

Hughes: “With teenagers, I think of video games, scrolling through social media at 2 a.m, texting because you’re gonna miss something, scrolling through TikTok because you’re going to miss the next new trends. I believe that kids don’t know how much sleep affects them.”