Should your college kid be sleeping away their vacation??
It happens more often than you think — college is stressful, and the one thing your kid wants to do when they come home for break is to just sleep the whole thing away. But is it healthy?
Are they just “catching up” on sleepy?
Well “catching up” doesn’t really work. It’s helpful to an extent, but we can never really catch up on everything lost. Though, it shouldn’t be necessary for teens to take weeks and weeks to catch up.
In fact, teens need about 9/9.5 hours of sleep to feel right.
Sleeping past that for multiple days could also be a sign of illness — and mononucleosis or depression. They also might have a sleep disorder like sleep apnea or restless leg.
Also, just because you’re up and at it early doesn’t mean they have to be. In fact, they probably stay up way later than you, in which you might THINK they’re sleeping 16 hours a day, but really are only getting about 10. Ask them when they went to bed. It’s natural for teens to only feel sleepy closer to 1 am, and then their lives have them say up later!
Most important, just talk to your kid. Ask them what’s up and go from there!
[Image via AP Images.]