Every year around exam time stress and sleepless nights often consume most teenagers. Rather than expending their break-time appropriately to exercise, take a walk or sleep well in time teenager's end up resorting to unhealthier options, such as taking-in higher levels of caffeine and overspending time with 'gadget friends' for surfing social media or communicating with friends via WhatsApp.

This invariably triggers odd sleeping patterns and behavioral changes among teenagers, which ultimately restricts them from getting sufficient time to rest or take a nap. In doing so, teenagers actually miss-out on utilizing the valuable break-time for reviving their energy levels, by engaging in activities that encourage relaxation of mind and body.

Scientific research reveals that on average teenagers require a well-timed sleep for 8-10 hours to get through the day effectively.

However, teens do not get this required amount of sleep owing to several reasons. These include - quickly changing body clock, incorrect understanding of sleep, and pressure from school, home or their environment, technology (phones, tablets) and so forth.

An unhealthy sleeping pattern can leave a lasting negative impact on a teenager's daily life and lead to problems like emotional imbalance, narcolepsy, and circadian rhythm disorders among others.

Too much of inactivity along with sleep deprivation can lead to obesity and serious disorders like sleep apnea - which impact many vital organs of the body and impact memory, concentration ability - and also predispose the child to problems like depression, metabolic disorders and heart problems at a later age.

While the biological clock in teens changes every now and then, through individual efforts they can synchronize the clock to match the required pace by ensuring a good sleep-wake balance combined with a scheduled lifestyle and a healthy diet & exercise regimen. It is really easy to obtain quality sleep by following good sleep hygiene practices by:

• Going to bed and waking up at a scheduled time
• Maintaining the recommended sleep duration
• Exercising regularly
• Eating healthy meals
• Avoiding consumption of caffeine, alcohol, tobacco and similar hazards
• Engaging in recreational activities like playing a sport

A good sleep is extremely important at every stage of life for good health. Following these recommended practices teenagers will not only be able to sleep comfortably but also benefit by deriving maximum of their true potential to progress in life.