Teen night owls: 2 wired 2 sleep

Lots of teens are into vampires these days. Many more of them seem to be keeping vampire hours.

Take Alexa McGill, who has a very modern way of falling asleep. She does it while texting.

"Usually I'll wake up in the middle of night, reply to the text I fell asleep during, then stay up for a few more hours," said McGill, 16, who lives in Anoka. "Around 5 a.m. I'll try to get a couple more hours of sleep because I have to get up at 7 to get ready for work."

When Sam Humleker of Minneapolis was in 10th grade, he was almost always asleep by 9:30 p.m. Now, two years later, the 18-year-old is up till 1 a.m., texting, Skyping, checking his Gmail, digg.com and Facebook. He tells his mother, Cordelia Anderson, that 1 o'clock in the morning isn't so bad: "Some of my friends are up till 3 a.m.," he said.

Kind of makes the days when Mom or Dad would bust their little night owlets for shining a flashlight on a good book under the covers seem as quaint as a Norman Rockwell painting.

It's a problem that has gotten worse with each new technological temptation to come their way -- especially something as small and easy to slip under a pillow as a cell phone, which can be used for playing video games and Web browsing as well as texting. It's how teens socialize and it's available 24/7, making it hard to tear themselves away from just one more text, just a few more minutes on the Xbox.

The numbers tell the story. Half of adolescents get fewer than eight hours (they actually need nine or more) of sleep on school nights, and only 15 percent of them get adequate sleep, according to a new poll on teens and sleep from the National Sleep Foundation.

Problem behind the problem

-By KRISTIN TILLOTSON, Star Tribune

How to Keep Your Children on the Path

As a parent it can be difficult to naviage the sometimes tumultuous waters. Not only as a Christian do we have the typical parenting issues to get through but we add another dimension to it when our faith becomes involved. Our faith is often what dictates the way we parent, the choices we make and how we raise up our children.

As a Christian parent, however, we have to be careful that we don't make Christianity a list of do's and don'ts. This can be a fine line to walk. There are definitely some standards that come into play which must be abided by. However a standard should be just that. It is a way of living, not a rule.

By nature people don't particularly care for rules. Children may not like rules either but they need them. Rules help to govern. However there is also a time and a place for rules. Living as a Christian is not the time or place. Too many children have the mindset that rules are made for breaking. So if they begin breaking what they consider to be "Christian" rules they could be heading for danger.

Instead, as a parent we should create a lifestyle that influences our
children. I personally don't believe in telling a child the reason they can't do something is because "we are Christians." While being a Christian most certainly may drive our choices and decisions, it is more than that.

What example are we setting for our children?

Read entire article here.

- By: Stephanie Romero, everydaychristian.com

Obesity, Stress, Teen Pregnancy – Top Health Problems for Kids – Getting Worse

Recent national statistics on obesity show the prevalence of childhood obesity leveling off. However, according to a report released today by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, public concern about childhood obesity remains high. For the third straight year, childhood obesity is rated the biggest health problem for kids by adults in the United States.

In May 2010, the Poll asked 2,064 adults to rate 20 different health concerns for children living in their communities. The top 10 overall health concerns for U.S. children in 2010 and the percentage of adults who rate each as a “big problem” include:

1. Childhood obesity, 38 percent
2. Drug abuse, 30 percent
3. Smoking, 29 percent
4. Internet safety, 25 percent
5. Stress, 24 percent
6. Bullying, 23 percent
7. Teen pregnancy, 23 percent
8. Child abuse and neglect, 21 percent
9. Alcohol abuse, 20 percent
10. Not enough opportunities for physical activity, 20 percent

Read entire article here.

- University of Michigan Health System

Teen Behavior is Behavior with a Reason

Youth specialist Tim Sanford encourages parents to realize that children
always do things for reasons. He exlains that many times parents don't know the
real reason behind a teen's behavior. He says, "God didn't make us random
beings, so our behavior (even rebellious behavior) is stemming from a
reason.

It's important to get to teh 'itch' (core reason) behind teh 'scratch'
(outward behavior or attitude)." Whether dealing with basic issues such as
respect or complex issues such as at-risk behavior, parents sometimes struggle
to understand the difference between healthy teenage autonomy adn blatant teen
rebellion.

What looks like rebellion may actually be a teen's natural "itch" for
greater independence.

Read more here.

-Pam Woody, www.FocusOnTheFamily.com

Pathological Internet Use Linked to Teen Depression

Teens who use the Internet excessively appear to be more likely to develop depression, according to a study set to appear in the October 2010 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Lawrence T. Lam, of the School of Medicine, Sydney, and the University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia and Zi-Wen Peng, of the Ministry of Education and Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China studied the relationship between pathological Internet use (defined as uncontrolled or unreasonable levels of usage) and later mental health issues among 1,041 Chinese teens with an average age of 15.

At the beginning of the study, 62 teens (6.2%) were classified as having moderately pathological use of the Internet (based upon a survey designed to identify pathological usage patterns), while 2 (0.2%) were at severe risk. After nine months, the teens were assessed for anxiety and depression. Eight (0.2%) had significant anxiety while 87 (8.4%) had developed depression. Those who had been identified as having pathological Internet use were at about two and half times more risk of having developed depression than those who had not exhibited pathological use. No relationship was observed between pathological Internet use and anxiety, however.

"This result suggests that young people who are initially free of mental health problems but use the Internet pathologically could develop depression as a consequence," said the authors. They further suggest that "a screening program for pathological use of the Internet could...be considered in all high schools to identify individuals at risk for counseling and treatment."

-By Nancy Schimelpfening, Depression Guide, about.com

What Parents Should Know About Teen Suicide

For a teenager to be so unbearably unhappy that he would choose to kill himself is something that's almost too painful for a parent to think about. But with the increasing prevalence of teen suicide, no parent can afford to ignore the possibility. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death for high-school students.
Kids look at this world as being more and more hopeless. They have no answer for their pain and despair, so many are choosing suicide as their solution. When I was in high school-- a school with 3,000 students-- I never knew of any of my peers committing suicide. And even in my work years ago as a director of Young Life, suicide among teh teens in our region was a very unusual event that I rarely heard of.

Fact is, before the 1960's, suicide by adolescents happened only rarely; but today, nearly one in ten teens contemplates suicide, and over 500,000 attempt it each year. While suicide rates for all other ages have dropped, suicides among teens have nearly tripled.

Between the sexes, teen boys are more than four times as likely t ocommit suicide as girls. But girls are known to think about and attempt suicide about twice as often as boys. The difference is the method; girls attempt suidie by overdosing on drugs or cutting themselves, and thankfully most are found in time and rescued. Boys tend to use more lethal methods, such as firearms, hanging, or jumping from heights.

The Warning Signs

By: Mark Gregston, Heartlight Ministries

Teenager Issues Are Parent Issues Too

Becoming a teenager in North America today is not easy. This is with certainty one of the most difficult periods of their lives. Many parents are so used to hearing about how difficult teenagers can be during their passage to adulthood, they simply try to fare with their kids, assuming there’s no merit to these teenager issues. It’s simply a waiting game, ending magically at approximately the age of 21, when the kids somehow acquire common sense and the parents once again have their lovely children back in the fold. If you’re a parent with this perspective, read on to see how important your input is during the adolescent period of development.

If you recall your own teen years, you know that hormonal changes are happening fast and furiously. Some teenagers suffer from wider mood swings than others. Girls begin their menstrual periods, throwing their entire metabolism in a tizzy. Boys begin to exhibit more aggressive behaviors, trying on the macho. This phenomenon exerts perhaps the greatest influence on what are often dismissively referred to as ‘teen issues’.

Read entire post here.

-By Lissa, www.breakyourshackles.com