Ep 106: Teen Brain Hacks

Malin Gutestam, author of Brain Tools for Teens, shares what she
has learned from decades of working in education. There are a few
simple tactics that every teen can employ to make their brain
work for them--and Malin tells us what parents can do to help.


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Full show notes


When your teen is cranky, rude, anxious, or just stressed out,
it’s hard not to ask yourself, what’s making them act this way?
You may start to worry that it was by something you did...or
wonder if there’s something you should be doing! Parenting is one
of the world’s toughest jobs, and even when you’re doing your
best it can feel as though your teen’s problems are somehow
linked to your parenting.


The truth is, however, these behaviors could be caused by
something far out of your control. Teenager’s moods are affected
by so many things: the amount of sleep they get, how much time
they spend on their screens, whether or not the person they have
a crush on talked to them at school...the list goes on. There’s
countless small forces that shape teens’ behavior in big ways,
and by looking at research into how teens operate mentally and
physically, we can uncover how these forces accumulate to shape
teens’ behavior.


Our guest this week is Malin Gutestam, a researcher and educator
who has worked extensively with adolescents to uncover how teens
can not only improve their mood but also find success in their
endeavors. She’s the author of Brain Tools for Teens, a guide to
teen psychology and biology that focuses on helping teens
understand their own form and function to increase performance on
everything from academics to athletics. The book is chock full of
well-researched advice about how teens can be happy, healthy, and
learn effectively.


One key idea Malin focuses on is the value of educating teens
about the science of their own minds and bodies. For example, if
we simply tell teens to sleep more, they’ll likely just end up
staying awake until midnight playing Minecraft yet again. But if
we can teach them how sleeping more will allow them to lead a
more productive and happy life, they might be more likely to tuck
themselves in by ten pm.


In the episode, Malin discusses the psychological occurrences
that can cause teens to act up, and explains some of her research
on the value of sleep, and mindfulness.


The Science Behind Your Teen’s Stress


It can sometimes feel as though your teen lives in a melodrama,
when they turn every small event into a spectacle of emotion.
While you may think they’re just being theatrical, there’s
actually some science behind why they have such intense reactions
to seemingly insignificant stuff.


Malin explains in the episode how the brain’s prefrontal cortex,
which analyzes our surroundings for potential threats, is not
quite developed fully until humans reach adulthood. That means
for teenagers, telling the difference between a serious concern
and a minor blip is not as easy as it is for adults.


This also means teens are more likely to get overwhelmed by all
the things in their lives that threaten them or stress them out,
and they're not always the best at solving problems. In the
episode, Malin discusses steps you can take to help them work
through their feelings when they’re making mountains out of
molehills.


She also shares how we can help our teens take their seemingly
negative stress and use it positively. Physiologically, the
nervousness we feel when we have an important test is the same
sensation we experience when we’re about to sing for a crowd or
jump out on the soccer field. In our conversation we discuss how
teens can channel their anxiety into something more positive and
productive.


When it comes to regulating emotions and improving performance,
there’s another very important physical factor: sleep.


How Sleeping Leads to Success


We all know that sleeping more helps us have more energy, but
what scientific ideas about sleep can we share with our kids to
help them understand it’s value? One thing Malin speaks
thoroughly about in the episode is sleep’s connection to memory.


When we sleep, our body shifts through the day’s memories, like
you might shift through shows on Netflix--and just like you might
use your remote to save a show to watch for later, the brain
stores some memories as useful for the long term. Your brain
keeps important information ( a due date for a new project, the
name of someone you met, or maybe even a memorable moment with a
friend) and ditches the mundane stuff (what you had for
breakfast, the songs you heard on the radio as you drove to the
store).


This process, known as “consolidation,” is super valuable when it
comes to tests and examinations. Malin discusses how a good
night’s sleep can lead to better scores on an evaluation.
However, if we fail to get adequate rest, we can mess up this
consolidation process--leading us to perform poorly when it comes
to retaining information.


Now, whether we’re a developing teen or a fully grown adult,
we’ve all stayed up late trying to stuff information into our
brains-to “cram” before the next day. Malin explains how,
although we think this may help us achieve greater results on our
exam, our lack of sleep is actually severely detrimental to our
memory.


Malin offers a great solution to this problem in the episode. She
also talks at length about how not sleeping affects metabolism,
and therefore mood. If teens can get more sleep, they can enter
their day with more energy, but in order to truly thrive, they’ll
have to learn how to harness that energy and use it to better
themselves. This is where Malin dives into the importance of self
awareness.


The Transformative Power of Self Awareness


Although there are varying definitions of the term “self
awareness”, Malin uses it to describe the ways we pause, slow
down, and reflect during our daily lives. Teens these days have
got a lot of distractions--they carry around tiny computers in
their pockets and can conjure up anything they think of with just
a quick google search--but with the right techniques, they can
find ways to center themselves and return their focus back to
what’s important.


Because she knows that teens (and parents) are pretty busy, she
suggests short little exercises that can help promote self
awareness and tranquility. She cites some of her research, a
brief study about how mindfulness can help teens improve their
focus during exams. In the study, adolescents who were about to
take a math test were told to close their eyes and focus on their
breathing for a full minute. At the end, a majority of the teens
said this short activity greatly improved their focus.


Malin suggests implementing this in your family in small,
accessible ways. For example, before eating together, try taking
a minute to close your eyes and just breathe, bringing your
thoughts back to your breath when you start to get carried away
by your anxieties or distractions.


Although it may seem a little out of the ordinary to sit with
your family in silence, it’s a nice way to incorporate reflection
and mindfulness into your day and--bonus points--can help you eat
mindfully instead of shoveling food into your mouth (which we all
tend to do occasionally, especially when we’re busy or
stressed...