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LEADING THE FIELD
And what parent of a teenager hasn’t been
frustrated by their kids’ sleep patterns?
As the rest of the household is winding
down for the night, teens hit their stride.
Then, in the morning, it takes proverbial
dynamite to get them out of bed to face
their responsibilities for the day.
The reality is: That’s just how they roll.
A teenager’s natural rhythm is to be more
wakeful later in the day, and they also
need more sleep. Need peaks at about 12
or 13 years old and decreases slightly each
year through about age 20, when a more
regular “adult” sleep pattern is the norm.
A Rosecrance staff member adds decoration to the daily schedule on one of the girls’ wings at Rosecrance
Griffin Williamson Campus. Rosecrance has seen improvements in patients’ alertness, mood and motivation
after building in an extra hour of sleep to the daily schedule.
A better way
to do sleep
Rosecrance circadian rhythm study results in
more sleep, better experience for teen patients
It’s standard practice at Rosecrance
to ask: “Is there a better way?” If
the answer is yes, we’ll do what it
takes to change our treatment program
to give children, adolescents and
adults the best opportunity for lasting
recovery.
That’s the Rosecrance Way, and it was
this goal for performance improvement
that led a staff member to suggest that
we look at the circadian rhythms of teens
in treatment to see how their unique
sleep patterns might be affecting their
treatment and recovery.
Research on the subject has led hundreds
of school districts across the nation to
adopt later start times for middle and
high school age students. So, we asked
ourselves, might our young patients in
treatment at the Griffin Williamson
campus patients do better in treatment if
we respected their circadian rhythm, as
much as possible, and gave them more
sleep time?
In February, we changed the entire daily
schedule at the adolescent campus to
allow all patients to sleep close to an
hour longer. It meant changing times for
medications, meals, group counseling,
recreation and school. Staff schedules
were revised to accommodate the new
daily pattern.
Early indications are that our new
schedule is having the desired effect. Staff
members report that patients seem more
alert and rested. We’ve seen improvements
in patients’ mood and motivation.
We will continue to evaluate the new
schedule to see if it’s helping patients in
their recovery.
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