Many of the hormonal, metabolic and psychological processes that adolescents experience develop during sleep, so it is important that young people 13 to 18 years of age get enough sleep. However, research shows that there are many who spend less time overnight, especially on working days (and no, sleeping more on the weekend does not compensate for that), a large number of young people do not exceed seven hours of sleep, according to recent studies.

Being young you may not notice tiredness in the body, but experts say it influences mood and attitude (may be more irritable, more demotivated…), academic performance (attention, memory capacity…) and health: "Changes in metabolism, headache, gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes…", explains Darío Fernández in his article in El País.

Why do they sleep less?

Experts point to a key factor: mobile and electronic devices. Hooked up to the phone, sleep less hours, but also worse, indisposition to messages, warnings and stimuli. Light inhibits melatonin or sleep hormone (even screen light) and doctor Gonzalo Pin in this ARGIA article states that a teenager's biological clock is much more sensitive to light at night than in the morning, that is, if you are with technology it will cost you more to sleep, "and usually you are with technology." The doctor highlights recent research in which an adolescent receives an average of four messages on his cell phone at night.

Another interesting factor is that adolescents, at night, secrete melatonin later than children and adults, so they fall asleep later. "You'll never be able to lie to a teenager before, you won't do it biologically: telling a teenager is to lie to us at 23:00 as if they told us to lie to us at 19:00; you start going back in bed, to create cortisol… and you don't have melatonin," says Pin. Conclusion? In the first class of 8 in the morning, adolescent students are half asleep. "Baccalaureate schedules are against nature, the teenager has to enter school at 9 and many studies say so, as a sign of the positive impact that the half-hour delay in the entry of students in the United States has had."

Adolescence is the stage of tasting coffee, alcohol, tobacco, stimulant drinks, etc., which do not contribute to good sleep either. And not wanting to go to sleep can also be common if you don't care about it and you're aware of its consequences.

So ...

Experts recommend reducing the use of mobiles and the like, establishing regular schedules and creating a quiet and quiet environment before bedtime. Darío Fernández also highlights the influence of food: cherries, bananas, milk, meat, blue fish and nuts become melatonins (help sleep), while before sleeping better do not dine spinach, acelgas, sausages, very mature cheeses, red meats, legumes and tomato.