Teenagers are overloaded, strapped for time, and often asked to wake far earlier than they should because of school start times. It’s no surprise they’re sleep-deprived as a result, with far-reaching consequences. Parenting journalist Lisa L. Lewis, MS, who helped spark the first law in the nation requiring healthy school start times for adolescents, has written an actionable guide for parents who want to help their exhausted teens. In The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive, Ms. Lewis synthesizes the research to provide parents of teens and tweens with reader-friendly information and strategies, including information on the science of why sleep matters and how it changes during the teen years; an overview of how sleep affects mental health, academics, athletic performance, and more; a primer on how gender, sexual identity, socioeconomic status and race and ethnicity can affect sleep; a look at technology and sleep; and suggestions for making sleep-friendly changes at home and in schools.

Ms. Lewis reporting covers the intersection of parenting, public health, and education. She has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Los Angeles Times, among others, and has a master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Ms. Lewis will be in conversation with Melinda Wenner Moyer, an award-winning science journalist and author who writes the weekly Well newsletter for The New York Times. Wenner Moyer is a contributing editor at Scientific American magazine and is a faculty member at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.

This event is presented by Family Action Network (FAN). Gorton Center is proud to partner with FAN as a sponsor of this event to bring this programming to our patrons.