Teens & Sleep – A Beautiful Union, But What’s Getting in the Way?

Quality pillow time – blissful, uninterrupted and long enough – is vital for all of us. For teens and tweens, their brains are growing like never before and sleep is critical to power this process along. They all have it in them to set the world on fire, and they’ll find their own way to do that, but for that to happen, they need sleep. And plenty of it. So what are most of them doing before they fall asleep that’s getting in the way?

Recent research from Brown University has found that the light from phones or tablets could be disrupting teens’ sleep by suppressing a key hormone that controls the timing of sleep.

Light exposure can delay the time that anyone falls asleep, but teens and tweens are particularly vulnerable. This extent of the vulnerability seems to depend on the stage of puberty they are at.

Children and adolescents aged 9 to 15 who are in the earlier stages of puberty seem to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of light before bed, compared to those 11 to 16 year olds who are further along the puberty path.

Light exposure at night-time disrupts the production of melatonin, the sleep-timing hormone. The disruption is significantly more for teens in the earlier stages of puberty than those in the later stages, though all are affected to some degree. The short of it is that the brighter the light and the earlier in development, the more trouble teens have falling asleep.

The research looked at the effect of light exposure on 38 children in early to middle puberty and 29 teens in late or post-puberty. Let’s look at the results:

For tweens and teens in early to middle puberty (age 9-15):

  • An hour of dim mood lighting suppressed melatonin by 9.2%.
  • An hour of normal room light decreased it by 26%.
  • Brighter light (as in supermarket bright) knocked it down by 36.9%

For teens in the later stages or post-puberty (age 11-16):

  • An hour of dim light made no difference to melatonin production.
  • Normal room light reduced it by 12.5%.
  • Bright light reduced it by 23.9%.

The effects were the same for boys and girls.

According to the authors of the study, small amounts of light, such as that from tablets, televisions or computers is enough to interfere with sleep cycles by making it harder to fall asleep, ultimately reducing overall sleep time.

Screen time for our teens is here to stay. It’s how they connect, learn, and experiment with the world and their place in it. But they need their sleep and anything you can do to get them on board with the timing of screen stoppage time before bed will be important to ensuring they have what they need to grow into the amazing humans the world is willing them to be.

 

Are you afraid of being too happy?

What is Cherophobia?

It is a phobia where a person has an irrational aversion to being happy. Someone suffering from the symptoms of Cherophobia are often afraid to participate in activities that many would characterise as fun, or of being happy.

What are the symptoms of Cherophobia?

Some medical experts classify it as a form of anxiety disorder. Anxiety is an irrational or heightened sense of fear related to the perceived threat. People suffering from Cherophobia have heightened levels of anxiety associated with taking part in activities that would be thought to make you happy.

Not everyone suffering from Cherophobia is a sad person, they just choose to avoid getting involved in activities that could lead to happiness. For example:

  • experiencing anxiety at the thought of going to a social event, such as a party or concert
  • turning down opportunities that could lead to positive life changes as they are worried that something bad will follow
  • refusal to join in any activities that the many other people would consider to be fun and enjoyable.

People who experience Cherophobia may feel the following:

  • Being happy will mean something bad will happen to them
  • Being happy means you a bad or worse person
  • Trying to be happy is a waste of time and effort.

What are the causes of Cherophobia?

Sometimes Cherophobia can be formed from the belief that if something very good happens to a person, or if their life is going well, that a bad event is destined to happen. As a result, they may fear activities related to happiness because they believe they can prevent something bad from happening. This is often the case when someone has experienced a past physical or emotional traumatic event.

An introvert may be more likely to experience Cherophobia. An introvert is a person who typically prefers to do activities alone or with one to two people at a time. They’re often seen as reflective and reserved. They may feel intimidated or uncomfortable in group settings, loud places, and places with a lot of people.

Perfectionists are another personality type that may be associated with Cherophobia.  They may feel that happiness is a trait only of lazy or unproductive people. As a result, they may avoid activities that could bring happiness to them because these activities are seen as unproductive.

How can Hypnotherapy help people with Cherophobia?

Cherophobia often develops when people try to protect themselves, this may stem from a past conflict, tragedy, or trauma. If Cherophobia is affecting your quality of life, seeking treatment can often help you develop a more positive outlook on life.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help this process by helping a person to recognise their previous negative patterns of behaviour. Through the use of hypnosis a person can identify and create new and more positive patterns of behaviour enabling your life to move forward without this fear holding you back.

If you would like to discuss this further please contact me on 07800 907163 or via my website at www.oaktreehypnotherapy.com.

Overthinking Causes Anxiety

Do you find yourself overthinking problems and issues that have occurred in your life?  Do you feel you need to work out in your own head why someone is behaving or reacting the way that they are?  The most important question is does overthinking everything cause you to suffer from stress and anxiety?  If the answer is yes then you will find this article really interesting.

The energy we put into overthinking why other people react the way they do and say the things they say can be exhausting, it can cause us to suffer with high levels of unnecessary stress and anxiety.  The only person causing the anxiety is you by overthinking different scenarios and keeping them in your brain.

If you feel you suffer like this then please have a read of the article below.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help reduce the stress and anxiety caused by overthinking and can enable us to have a more positive outlook on life and likewise reduce the problem of overthinking.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inviting-monkey-tea/201903/why-you-cant-figure-out-your-way-happiness?fbclid=IwAR2ZTFmFnUakv3VAFCIexehfpZprM0PRRUehaEaXAQ5NltJolzx7x64d-lM