Generation Sleepless

Book excerpt: An intimate glimpse inside a silent epidemic that is harming teens and how parents can help them reclaim the restorative power of sleep. If you could protect your teen from unnecessary anxiety, depression, and chronic stress, and foster a greater sense of happiness and well-being in their life, wouldn’t you? In Generation Sleepless, the authors of the classic guide to helping babies and young children develop healthy sleep habits The Happy Sleeper uncover one of the greatest threats to our teenagers’ physical and mental health: sleep deprivation. Caught in a perfect storm of omnipresent screens, academic overload, night owl biology and early school start times, Generation Sleepless illustrates how our teens are operating in a constant state of sleep debt and "social jet lag" while struggling to meet the demands of adolescence. In this essential book, Heather Turgeon, MFT and Julie Wright, MFT draw on the latest scientific research to reveal that, at a critical phase of development, many teens need more sleep than their younger siblings, but they're getting drastically less. Generation Sleepless helps readers: • foster a teen's self-motivation for sleeping well • alter family practices around phones, social media, and screen time • draw on an understanding of teens' night owl tendencies to create smart sleep habits • lay out steps for sleep-friendly schools and promoting systemic changes that help teens get the rest they need This first-of-its-kind book is packed with clear and instantly usable advice for parents as well as an eye-opening call to action for teachers, principals, colleges, coaches, and policy makers.