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My 19-Year-Old Should Be Your Poster Child

by Kate
(Crum Lynne, PA, USA)

For the longest time, my daughter has not had a "normal" sleep cycle. She stays up late, sleeps very late and can't seem to break the cycle. School was a nightmare! And now she starts college in a month. I'm going to try some of the suggestions in this article. Melatonin worked for a while, but a lot of times she would just wake back up in a few hours and be even more awake than usual thanks to the power nap.


I'd be very happy to hear any more tips you may have or stories from others that helped break this cycle. It's really starting to affect everyone's life who lives in our house.

Kevin: Hey Kate, Thanks for sharing your story. A delayed sleep phase in adolescents can sure make waking up for school and thriving in the morning a frustration. A lot of people can relate to you there, including me.

In your effort to influence the cycle, just remember it's an issue of circadian rhythms. Your daughter's body clock isn't releasing sleep-inducing chemicals until very late at night. The best way to influence a body clock is with bright light therapy using a light box of at least 10,000 lux in strength.

Also, for more delayed sleep phase stories check out this part of our site.

All the best!
Kevin

(Please keep in mind that I am a student of sleep science and not a medical doctor. Please take any thoughts I give with my background in mind.)

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Welcome! This site is continuously being created by students of Dr. William C. Dement's Sleep And Dreams course at Stanford University.

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