Understanding Your Teen's Sleep: Quality vs Quantity
by Nicholas Smith
Supervised Counsellor / Career Coach
Understanding Your Teen's Sleep: Quality vs Quantity
As parents in Singapore, we often focus on getting our teens to bed earlier, but there's more to good sleep than just hours spent in bed. In our fast-paced city, where academic excellence is prized and digital devices are always within arm's reach, understanding sleep science can help us better support our teenagers' rest and recovery. Furthermore, for many of us who have moved to Singapore from abroad, having friends and family in different time zones can make it just that little bit harder to establish a positive nighttime routine.
The Hidden Rhythm of Teen Sleep
Sleep isn't just a simple "off switch": our brains take a complex journey through different stages when we fall asleep and close our eyes. What's more, our brains go through that journey as a cycle several times each night. Going to bed a bit later and waking up a bit earlier might look like ten per cent less sleep, but it could cut a cycle or two short. You can imagine several 90-minute cycles repeating throughout the night, with each stage serving a crucial purpose in your teen's physical and mental well-being.
The journey begins with light sleep, where your teen drifts off. During this delicate time, many teens, trying to study until exhaustion, often wake themselves up and have to start over. Light sleep then transitions into intermediate sleep, where the body temperature drops and the heart rate slows - a stage that takes up about half of the night's total sleep time and is crucial for memory and learning.
Deep sleep is a crucial time when our bodies engage in physical restoration, which includes strengthening the immune system.
Why it is so hard to catch up on sleep
Most of this vital deep sleep happens in the first half of the night - which explains why going to bed too late can be so detrimental, even if your teen sleeps in the following day.
Finally, there's REM sleep, where dreams occur and emotional processing occurs. These REM periods become longer in the second half of the night, making those early morning hours crucial for emotional regulation and memory consolidation.
Quality over quantity - missing an hour or missing a cycle
When teenagers get only 5 to 6 hours of sleep instead of the recommended 8 to 10 hours, they are not just losing a few hours but missing out on entire sleep cycles. This disruption can lead to surprising effects, such as difficulty concentrating in morning classes, increased emotional volatility, and a tendency to oversleep on weekends in an attempt to "catch up" on missed rest.
Creating a Sleep-Friendly Environment
The good news is that we can work with our environment rather than against it. Start by managing room temperature - research shows that maintaining 20-22°C is ideal for sleep. In our tropical climate, this might mean using air conditioning strategically.
The evening routine is crucial. Rather than enforcing a strict "lights out" policy, work with your teen to develop a gradual wind-down period. This might include shifting device use earlier in the evening (those late-night study sessions on tablets are particularly disruptive to sleep), planning dinner times to avoid heavy meals close to bedtime, and creating a calm pre-sleep routine that works with their natural rhythms.
Blue light and our natural rhythm
In a world where smartphones feel like an extension of our hands, teens face a unique challenge when it comes to sleep. While parents might worry about general screen time, the science behind blue light reveals a deeper story about why late-night studying or scrolling is particularly problematic for teenage brains. Blue light from devices mimics natural daylight, essentially telling your teen's brain, "Stay awake!" at precisely the wrong time. Some research suggests this is particularly problematic for teenagers, given their eyes might be more sensitive to blue light than adults and face higher levels of disruption to their sleep cycles. This matters because teens are already battling their body's natural tendency to stay up later, and blue light exposure adds another layer of sleep disruption. When your teenager insists they're not tired at 10 PM while watching YouTube videos or completing homework on their laptop, it's not just their content choices keeping them awake - it's their brain being biochemically triggered to stay alert. This effect can last for hours after putting devices away, which explains why teens might feel "tired but wired" even after switching off their phones. For Singapore students who often study late into the evening, this creates a particularly challenging situation: balancing academic needs with the biological necessity of quality sleep. The solution isn't necessarily about eliminating evening device use entirely (which might be unrealistic), but rather about managing it strategically - whether through blue light filters, adjusted study schedules, or alternative study methods that don't involve screens during the crucial hours before sleep (This is when handwritten notes or printed pages can come in handy).
Some signs of digital eye strain can include headaches, dry eyes, and blurred vision.
Understanding Teen Sleep Patterns
It's important to understand that teenagers' sleep patterns naturally shift to a later schedule; this change is due to biological factors and not rebellion. While we cannot wholly override this shift, we can accommodate it by keeping consistent wake-up times, even on weekends, and by ensuring exposure to morning sunlight, despite Singapore's frequent cloud cover.
When to Seek Support
Good sleep isn't a luxury - it's a biological necessity. By understanding and supporting our teens' sleep cycles, we're not just helping them rest better but giving them the foundation they need to thrive. For example, a lack of sleep can exacerbate symptoms of depression, while adequate rest can help boost mood and improve feelings of overall mental well-being.
If your teen is consistently struggling with sleep despite good habits, or if you notice significant changes in their mood or academic performance, it might be time to seek help. Get in touch with us at The Counselling Place; we work with parents, teens, and family units to help unlock the transformative power of sleep. Find out how parent coaching or counselling in Singapore can help you and your family thrive!
About the author
Nicholas is a compassionate counsellor at The Counselling Place Singapore, who empowers individuals, couples, and families to navigate life's challenges. With a background in corporate leadership and expatriate experience, he understands the complexities of cultural transitions and personal growth.
Nicholas offers a safe and non-judgmental space for clients to explore their strengths and resilience, and discover a path towards wellness and self-awareness.