Lisa L. Lewis —The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive

THE SLEEP-DEPRIVED TEEN:
WHY OUR TEENAGERS ARE SO TIRED,
AND HOW PARENTS AND SCHOOLS CAN HELP THEM THRIVE
Mango Publishing, June 7, 2022, $18.95
ISBN-13: ‎978-1642507911
ASIN: ‎B09SQCN9JH

Lewis reports:

The issue of teen sleep first hit my radar when my son entered high school in August 2015. At that point, our local high schools started at 7:30 a.m., which seemed ridiculously early! I started researching and writing about the issue, and quickly learned that I’d tapped into something much larger than our community. Not only was there was a body of research about why high schools should start later in the morning given the impact on teen sleep, but the CDC had just released a baseline report on school start times.

Although I didn’t make headway with my local school district, a 2016 op-ed I wrote for the Los Angeles Times caught the attention of California State Senator Anthony Portantino, whose district is in L.A., and spurred a bill on the topic. I was swept up in the 2 ½ year legislative journey, which eventually resulted in California’s new landmark law requiring healthy start times for the state’s public middle- and high-schools.

My book came about as an outgrowth of that experience. It took about 10 months for me to develop the proposal and several months of outreach to potential agents. And then, while I was in talks with my agent, the pandemic hit, which made the process of finding a publisher that much more difficult. There was a silver lining for school start times, though: during pandemic-driven remote instruction, many schools opted to start classes later in the morning, and many ended up keeping the new schedules in place once in-person school resumed.

As I wrote the actual manuscript, the outline and content morphed from what I’d initially thought; some chapters were split in two because there was so much to cover, and some I’d wanted to include just didn’t fit. Throughout, I tried to stay focused on the intended audience—primarily parents of teens and tweens, but also educators and others who work with adolescents—and tailor the content and tone accordingly.

One final insight: as a first-time author, I’ve learned how much it helps to be part of a community of other writers for support and advice.

Contact info:

• Lisa L. Lewis, lisa@lisalynnelewis@gmail.com, https://www.lisallewis.com/, Twitter: @LewisLisaL, Instagram: @LewisLisaL
• Book: https://mango.bz/books/the-sleep-deprived-teen-by-lisa-l-lewis-2051-b
• Publicist: Geena El-Haj, geena@mangopublishinggroup.com
• Agent: Joëlle Delbourgo, joelle@delbourgo.com

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