The 21st Show

Sleeplessness epidemic among teens

 
Electric Time technician Dan LaMoore puts a clock hand onto a 1000-lb., 12-foot diameter clock constructed for a resort in Vietnam, Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in Medfield, Mass.

Electric Time technician Dan LaMoore puts a clock hand onto a 1000-lb., 12-foot diameter clock constructed for a resort in Vietnam, Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in Medfield, Mass. AP Photo/Elise Amendola

This Sunday at 2:00 a.m. Illinois time, we’ll spring our clocks forward one hour for daylight saving time. For many of us, that means losing an hour of sleep. And nobody is more sleep-deprived these days than teenagers. From school and work pressures to the distractions and anxiety that come with having access to social media and everything else on their phones, it can be hard to get sleep as a teenager. In a survey a few years back, 58% more teenagers were “severely sleep-deprived” than in 1991.

The 21st was joined by two psychotherapists who wrote a book on this sleepless generation and what can be done to help.

GUESTS:

Heather Turgeon 

Psychotherapist | Co-author, “Generation Sleepless: Why Tweens and Teens aren’t Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them.” 

Julie Wright 

Psychotherapist | Co-author, “Generation Sleepless: Why Tweens and Teens aren’t Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them.”

 

 

Prepared for web by Owen Henderson

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