Lisa L. Lewis and "The Sleep-Deprived Teen"
On the power of organizing, the myth of the 9-to-5 work day, and how parents can help set teens up for sleep success.
Lisa L. Lewis is a parenting journalist and author of “The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, And How Parents And Schools Can Help Them Thrive.” Lisa’s book is a thoroughly researched, action-oriented and enjoyable look at this important issue.
Tell me a little bit about your book.
My book, “The Sleep-Deprived Teen,” just came out in June. It was an outgrowth of a lengthy process that started for me in 2015, because that was when my oldest started high school, and at that point our local high school started at 7 in the morning. He was hardly alert and ready for a full day of learning. I put on my parenting journalist hat and tried to find out why the school was starting so early. Nobody could tell me when it had ever started at a different time. So this had been in place for decades. However, I also found out that we were not unique — this was the case in so many other communities.
But perhaps the most important thing was that just the previous year, 2014, was when the American Academy of Pediatrics had come out with their policy statement recommending that middle and high school start no earlier than 8:30 in the morning because of the ramifications it has on teen sleep. So really the research on this was just starting to hit a critical mass at the point where I got involved. I started writing about it — my first article about it came out in the spring of my son’s freshman year, then I wrote an op-ed that came out in the fall. It was called “Why schools should start later in the day,” and that was read by one of our California state senators. You could never predict how all this would unfold. It resonated with him because had a daughter that had just started her freshman year, and their school was having discussions about start time. He decided he wanted to look into it further, and he ended up introducing a bill on it. I had started a local chapter of a group called Start School Later, which is a national nonprofit, and they looped in all of us who were local chapter leaders.
The bill was introduced in February 2017, and it was a lengthy process — two and a half years. I ended up testifying. It got vetoed the first time I got to the governor’s desk. We had to go through the whole process again before it passed. By that point, we had a different governor. It has a three-year implementation window, and it just went into effect.
How do parents start this conversation in their own community, knowing that it’s not always easy?
The very first thing to do is to start talking about this with other parents. Find a group or form a group. It’s much easier than doing it on your own. Starting a chapter of Start School Later would absolutely be a recommendation. All the questions or perceived barriers have been addressed elsewhere. The bus schedules, the after-school schedules — those are all things that nearly every district has to deal with, and they are things that can be addressed successfully.
Start talking about this with other parents. Find a group or form a group.
Bringing in experts goes a long way. I will tell you, as a parent who was advocating for this locally, I basically was shut down by my local district. I had already been talking with a friend, a fellow parent, who’s a neurologist, and she was going to start coming with me to those meetings. It does often take a group of more than one, and if you have some medical expertise behind you, that often helps. Districts that have made the change, either it’s been through advocacy that starts with a parent or a community group, or it’s been someone at the school level who is familiar with and supports this concept. And unfortunately in far too many cases, that doesn't happen, and those districts don't end up changing. So having it addressed at a statewide level is ultimately the best place to do so.
Right now, both New York and New Jersey do have bills under consideration spurred in part by what was going on in California. It’s huge to even have a bill. Bills have been introduced in so many states and haven’t passed. Congress does not have jurisdiction but one of our U.S. Representatives, Zoe Lofgren, has been championing this issue since the 1990s. She introduced the “ZZZ’s to A’s Act” to raise awareness. It isn’t something that can be done overall at the federal level, but it brings awareness to the issue.
In your book, I appreciate how you make this issue come to life. Not just that teens are sleep-deprived, but all the reasons why it matters.
For our teens, it has the extra ramifications because of the state of brain development that they're in. And we don’t do anything better when we’re sleep-deprived. Sleep deprivation exacerbates so many of these things like depression and anxiety.
Teens shift to a later circadian rhythm when they hit puberty. They start to shift later because melatonin begins to be released later in the evening and doesn’t subside until later in the morning. So they’re not sleepy until about 11, and of course many of them are not even going to sleep anywhere close to that. If they have to be in their seat at 7 or 7:30, there’s no way they are getting enough sleep.
Nationally, the average [school start time] is 8 a.m. There are some states where it’s more like 7:30 or 7:40. But it’s really all over the map, and school start times weren’t ever put in place for student well being. They were never meant to mirror the work day, but there is no one work day. The number of people who work office jobs is just one piece of the workforce. The two largest employers are Amazon and Walmart.
What can be done at the family level to support healthy teen sleep?
My main message is to make sleep a priority. The single biggest policy change is later start times, so getting involved in that is important. But there are things we can do in our own homes too.
One is to look at whether your teen is overscheduled. I think that often is the case. They’re just on overload. So just look at everything on their plate, because it’s not just the hours in school, it’s also the homework. Add all that up — the amount of in school, plus homework, plus extracurriculars — and see if you’ve even left a window of 8-10 hours. If not, you may want to look at making some changes. If there’s no possible way they can get 8-10 hours of sleep, that’s not setting them up for success.
Tech use is another huge topic, which is complicated. Tech is such an important part of teens’ social lives. This is legitimately part of how they stay connected to their peer group, and they often have to do homework online and turn it in online. You can’t just ban technology, but there are some best practices, like no tech use an hour before bedtime. So I would encourage parents to look at best practices about tech use, and do it as a family. If you’re going to say, All our devices should be charged in a central location, that means your phone has to be there too.
Another piece from one of the experts I spoke with, who works with professional sports teams, is to develop a wind-down routine. You did that with your kids when they were little, reading them a story and all that, but for teens, parents don’t have to be as immersed in it. But the idea is similar — to encourage your family to have some set sequence of steps that they do to help make that transition to going to sleep. You can’t just run hard and expect that your brain flips off and you fall asleep. Reading a book, taking a bath — trying to have some transition time. If you have some specific things you do, that helps set that transition.
You can find Lisa at www.lisallewis.com, and look for “The Sleep-Deprived Teen” wherever books are sold.