FOR KIDS: Making light of sleep3

Staying up late may come naturally for teens, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. If teenagers awaken for school before the final phase of sleep is complete, grogginess in class is inevitable. Grades can suffer. Sometimes, it becomes impossible to get to school at all.

Dr. Roger Green, a pediatrician in Kingston, N.Y., helps kids who have reached this point. He specializes in treating sleep disorders. He also has firsthand knowledge of the problems an incorrectly set clock can create.

He remembers being late many days during sixth grade and regularly missing the school bus in middle school. In high school, he was suspended for being late too many times. “I had sleep problems for years, but there was no one to help me,” he says.

Sleep problems can cause health problems, too. When 11-year-old Madyson Macejka’s sleep-wake cycle got out of sync with her daily schedule, she began to suffer from headaches. That’s when her mother took her to see Dr. Green.

Macejka was always a night owl, according to her mother. She liked to stay up late, and often found it hard to go to sleep at an early hour during the school week. During the week, Macejka had problems waking up for school. On weekends, she would often sleep until noon.

Green says this kind of pattern can knock the circadian rhythm totally off-kilter. By sleeping late on weekends, Macejka was disrupting her the sleep-wake cycle for the whole week. “It’s like having jet lag,” Green says. Jet lag happens when your circadian rhythm is running on a different day-night cycle than the day-night cycle of the outside world.

Kids who are struggling to get out of bed in the morning may need help resetting their internal clocks, he says. “You can't just turn back the clock and make a big change overnight. The brain and the body and the timing systems don't work that way.”

But gradual changes can be made. Green recommends starting out by going to bed at your regular time, but getting up a few minutes earlier each day. “You may start out with a late bedtime, but if you get up earlier every day, you will eventually go to bed earlier, too.”

Staying away from light in the evening is also important. That means no computer or TV in the bedroom. He also recommends getting out into the early morning daylight for 10 to 15 minutes.

It worked for Macejka. In just a few weeks she was able to get her sleep-wake cycle in sync with her schedule and with the sun’s cycle. She says she now feels more awake in class and no longer needs naps. Her grades have shot up, too. Now that’s nothing to mak