There are sleep disorders among teenagers that affects between seven to ten percent of teenagers called Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder, also known as DNS. Most teenagers outgrow this disorder by the time they reach young adulthood. Less then one percent of adults are believed to have DSP. Often people mistake sleep disorder for insomnia.
Left on their own, people with delayed sleep phase disorder would stay up until very late, sometimes until 4 or 5 a.m. They like to get up very late in the morning or early afternoon. Often they are referred to as night owls.
Many teenagers like to stay up late and sleep late in the morning. Sometimes this is because they want to socialize at that time of the day. However, it can also be due to the natural delay in the circadian sleep / wake rhythm at their age of development.
Sleep disorders among teenagers most of the time make the teenagers real tired on the day and they may even fall asleep in the classroom. The definite cause of this sleep disorder is not known but It is known for certain that it is a circadian rhythm problem. The sleep disorders symptoms that you may notice are when teenagers frequently have a really hard time getting up in the morning for school. Though, they go to sleep at a regular time, such as 11 p.m., they still toss and turn for hours like an individual with insomnia. The difference is, unlike an insomniac, people with delayed sleep phase disorder have no difficulty staying asleep but they do have a very difficult time getting up early in the morning.
Sleep disorder treatments are available for people that need to get onto a more traditional sleep / wake schedule. The types of treatment include, bright light, chronotherapy, melatonin and over- the-counter prescribed sleeping pills.
The bright light treatment for delayed sleep phase disorder is one form of sleep disorder treatments which uses bright light to trick the brain’s circadian clock . Exposed to bright light shifts the circadian rhythm, if it is distributed within a couple of hours of the body’s lowest temperature at night.
Sleep disorders among teenagers can be rather severe where in some cases, teenagers enduring delayed sleep phase disorder would need a week away from school called for to accomplished this therapy, chronotherapy which has been used as sleep disorder treatments for someone with delayed sleep phase disorder. It takes one week long of a block of time . In turn, daily bedtime is delayed by three hours. For instance, for someone that falls asleep at 2 a.m. but prefer to fall asleep at 11. p.m., their bedtime would move to 5 a.m. in the beginning. The succeeding day it would move to 8 a.m. and keep on with this cycle for a week. When the craved bed time is attained it is very crucial to maintain a uniform wake up time.
There are several sleep disorder treatments requiring respective drugs that are utilized to treat delayed sleep phase disorder. . Prescription medicine such as Ramelteon, and other sleeping pills, have been successful in dealing teenagers and adults with delayed sleep phase disorder.In addition, Melatonin has been successful in altering the sleep cycle of people with this sleep disorder.
If your teenager has trouble falling asleep and always wants to stay up late, be aware of the possibility that a sleep disorder may be present. Parents and teachers should be informed of sleep disorders among teenagers so that they are more observant with the sleep disorders symptoms and sleep disorder treatments can be sought.
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