Non sleeping teen

[StrugglingStepMum76]

Step son, 14, awake all night. Get up in the morning and his awake. Dad says nothing he can do, that's teenagers!. No I've had 3 boys,now men not 1 of mine ever stayed awake all night. My work environment is special needs and I've done mental health courses. They have mental health in the family. I've tried to explain the risks but getting nowhere. Any advice would be lovely and very helpful.

My daughter has huge sleeping issues. Its harder atm as I cant not let her use her phone as she is not seeing friends. Daylight hours are when she does sxhool work etc its so hard.

What is he doing all night?

I’d change the WiFi password for starters and turn it off at a reasonable time each night. Does he have a bedtime routine/wind down?

Is he then sleeping all day?

If he does you need to keep him up all day and not let him sleep so he can then sleep at night and yes take devices off him and block internet.

Tbf, you weren't raising a teenager in the middle of a pandemic. Mine and my friends' teenagers are all keeping very odd hours, but they aren't having the same levels of physical exertion as usual plus all their normal life is suspended.

As long as she is doing school work, I don't nag mine to sleep, she catches up on weekends and I'm turning a blind eye to the antisocial sleep patterns for now.

why does it matter?

not being volatile lol just genuinely curious as to why it really matters.

Are there any other issues, other than him not keeping to a 'conventional' sleeping pattern?

What do you mean 'they have mental health in the family'? We all have mental health.

My teen daughters sleep is not good. They are up all night at the weekend and then manage to get in a slightly better pattern in the week but they are very tired. It bothers me but this is not a usual time for anyone and it must be so hard being a teenager in this situation that I am just accepting things how they are and not making a fuss. Life will get back to normal, we can only all manage as best we can until then

My work environment is special needs and I've done mental health courses. They have mental health in the family.

These 2 sentences don't work together.

Does your stepson live with you? He is 14 and if nobody parents him of course he will stay up all night. In our house the Wi-Fi gets switched off around midnight when I put the TV off. My 19yo is usually asleep around 10/10:30pm and 18yo usually about 1/1:30am. They have grown up with the house rules of Wi-Fi off at that time and adjust themselves around it. Of course they still have their phones, hence 18yo staying awake. Also only the older one is working so my younger doesn't need to get up early

Personally I leave my two teen stepsons to it. They can go to bed and get up when they want. My only rule is no one falls asleep downstairs they need to get to bed.
This is only at weekends mind you...

Is he too tired to function during the day?

If his mum and dad aren’t worried there’s nothing you can do.

You mean mental illness, not mental health. I’m sure the courses you’ve been on made that clear.

Many young people are massively impacted by what is going on at the moment. In particular, where schools aren’t offering a full timetable of live teaching, they are up late at night and sleeping in. They need support to manage and make good sense of what is happening and the impact on them. Not assumptions about the state of their mental health by someone who did a course. Where are the parents in all this?