You may have spotted your teen staying up later than he used to. Activities that could be filling his late hours might include computer games, TV shows, phone calls, or music. Have you ever thought about caffeine intake as one of the reasons your teen is a night owl?

According to a recent study, eating foods, drinking beverages, or taking medications that have caffeine may lead to daytime sleepiness and breaks in sleep at night. Almost 200 high school students took part in this 14-day study. They reported on the time they went to bed and woke up, any caffeine intake, and any naps they took. At the end of the study, the researchers found that teens with higher caffeine intake slept fewer hours at night and took more naps during the day than those who had less caffeine.

What Does This Mean?

Broken sleep patterns can have many effects on a child. These include the following:

• Academic trouble
• Anxiety
• Decrease in cognitive development
• Depression (more common among females)
• Decreased immunity to illness
• Moodiness
• Reduced motivation

Caffeine can be found in many sodas, coffee, tea, chocolate. It is also one of the most commonly used drugs in some pain medications and over-the-counter drugs. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and raises the heart rate, which can lead to nervous system disorders and heart problems.

Like many drugs, caffeine can be addictive. Once the body becomes used to the caffeine intake, it needs more to feel the same effect. This often causes a continued increase in caffeine intake.

What To Do?

Now that you know some of the problems linked to loss of sleep and caffeine intake, you might be wondering how you can help your teen.

Avoid caffeinated drinks and products in the evening. Offer juice, milk, and water instead of soft drinks or tea and coffee.

Adjust plans to allow plenty of time for homework, studying, and writing reports and don't allow all-nighters. This will cut down on the desire to take coffee or drugs with caffeine.

Talk with your teen and agree on a bedtime. Help your teen plan how to get enough sleep. Some activities may need to be cut out or cut down to keep with the bedtime.

Urge your teen to stick to the plan as much as possible over the weekend.

These ideas can help reduce sleep deprivation. How do you help your teen kick the caffeine habit? Stopping caffeine intake cold turkey can cause withdrawal symptoms, including headaches, short-term depression or moodiness, and muscle aches. To avoid withdrawal, suggest slowly cutting back on caffeine. Cutting back may be hard at first, but after a few days your teen most likely will feel better rested and no longer suffer the effects of losing sleep.

Tags: Parenting Teenagers, Nutrition

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SAMHSA works to improve the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, alcohol and drug addiction treatment, and mental health services. Includes links to support groups, information resources, events and articles.