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Sleep Disorders in Women pp 71–84Cite as

Defining, Assessing, and Treating Adolescent Insomnia and Related Sleep Problems

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Part of the book series: Current Clinical Neurology ((CCNEU))

Abstract

As parents, teachers, coaches, health care providers, and teenagers themselves know, adolescence is filled with significant physical, cognitive, emotional, and social change. Sleep is a crucial and often ignored aspect of adolescents’ lives as it changes and influences factors in their overall development, as well as in their daily lives. The quality and quantity of adolescents’ sleep significantly influences their ability to think, behave, and feel in school, on the playing field, at work, as well as in a variety of other situations. Over the last two decades, laboratory data have demonstrated that adolescents have an increased need for sleep and experience a phase delay during puberty (1–5). Despite this need, survey and field studies indicate that as early as sixth grade, adolescents obtain less sleep, report increased morning drowsiness, and have more spontaneous daytime naps than do younger children (6–8). School schedules, work and extracurricular hours, and other environmental constraints are not beneficial to adolescents’ sleep schedules and requirements (2,4,7,9). In fact, teenagers develop a sleep debt by getting a minimal amount of sleep on school nights and making up for this by sleeping longer on the weekends (7). Sleep debt results in frequent absences or tardiness from school, sleepiness and emotional lability, attention difficulties, and academic struggles (7,10–13). Other adolescents may develop sleep disorders such as insomnia, phase-delay disorder, sleep apnea, or other sleep problems that also impair ability to function during the day. Recently, the National Institutes of Health recognized adolescents and young adults (12–25 years) as a population at high risk for problem sleepiness based on “evidence that the prevalence of problem sleepiness is high and increasing with particularly serious consequences” (14). This chapter focuses on insomnia and phase-delay disorders in adolescents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA

    Amy R. Wolfson PhD, Alison Quinn BA & Anna Vannucci

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  1. Amy R. Wolfson PhD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vermont Regional Sleep Center Department of Neurology, University of Vermont College of Medicine/Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burlington, VT

    Hrayr P. Attarian MD

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Wolfson, A.R., Quinn, A., Vannucci, A. (2006). Defining, Assessing, and Treating Adolescent Insomnia and Related Sleep Problems. In: Attarian, H.P. (eds) Sleep Disorders in Women. Current Clinical Neurology. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-115-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-115-4_7

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