stopped playing her children’s game and started to receive their respect.

For a lot of teens, especially those who have often had the way smoothed for them, it can be hard to take on sleep-related responsibilities. But teens really need to understand that they’re plenty old enough to take on the job of regulating their sleep-wake schedule and for being a responsible family member. As parents we should support them, but it’s not up to us to shoulder the entire load. We don’t need to try to wake them 20 times in the morning, we don’t need to stay up late putting together a school lunch the night before, we don’t need to wake up from our own sleep to make sure they didn’t fall asleep in front of the TV. If we do, we’re just enabling the continuation of their bad sleep habits and keeping our teens from growing up. A reality check of the dynamics in your household will help you see if some changes need to be made.

One of the best ways you can support your teen is to join with other parents and local advocacy groups to have the schools in your area start later in the morning. The extra sleep teens would get would pro-