TEEN SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Often, lack of sleep is the first reason given by any adult who is not performing their best, but lack of sleep is also a major issue in most teens. A prime example of how lack of sleep is very common with teens is my family member, a 15-year-old girl who will be addressed as S.L.M. and has a clean bill of health. She’s notorious for napping too long during the day and staying up too late leading to an endless cycle of sleep deprivation. She often has difficulty waking up for school and has been known to miss the school bus in the morning.
S.L.M.’s sleep problem started to significantly worsen about two years ago when she moved to North Dakota from California. She often stayed up into the late hours to stay in touch with her friends from California to play video games with them causing her body to shut down after school and nap for an extended amount of time. The broken cycle of staying up late at night and then making up for the lost sleep by napping late afternoon has led her to ultimately being sleep deprived. Even though she primarily stays up late to play video games, she’s a high school student who obsesses about her homework and studies vigorously to maintain her 4.0 GPA. Finding the balance between socializing, maintaining a high GPA and getting the right amount of sleep is a problem that S.L.M. needs to slowly try to curve to improve her health and overall well-being.
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A. (1990). Patterns of sleep and sleepiness in adolescents. Pediatrician, 17(1), 5-12.
Hansen, M., Janssen, I., Schiff, A., Zee, P. C., & Dubocovich, M. L. (2005). The impact of school daily schedule on adolescent sleep. Pediatrics, 115(6), 1555-1561.
Golson, C. (2012). Sleep Deprivation in Teens. 27.
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2017, August 25). Teen sleep: Why is your teen so tired? Retrieved from
Because of the demanding, early school start times, students are unable to obtain the hours of sleep that they need. From Among Teens, Sleep Deprivation an Epidemic by Ruthann Richter, the article explains that “teens have a biologic tendency to go to sleep later…” and with current start
The idea that teenagers need more sleep is not a new phenomenon. It is considered now to be common knowledge. Although society often views sleep as a luxury,
Lawrence Epstein, a medical director of Sleep Health Centers in Brighton, Massachusetts and an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, believes that “adequate sleep is essential to feeling awake and alert, maintaining good health, and working at peak performance.” (ww2.kqed.org). Some kids get about 7 hours of sleep and feel tired throughout the day, (sleepfoundation.org). When school is over sometimes the student does not remember what they were told because they were tired in the morning. Kids should be getting about 9 ¼ hours of sleep in order to be productive and successful in
starting times begin at 7 A.M in the morning, making teenagers wake up around 5:00 A.M to 6:30 A.M. causing teenagers that stayed up last night weary and fatigued when they arrive at school. Sleep is an enormous part of growth, health, and prevention of stress, think about what happens when you lack sleep. Almost anybody that is exhausted will have lack of focus throughout the day. 28% of tired students tend to fall asleep in their first class causing a harmful grade. Some sleepy students do not even bother to show up to school, contributing to drop out rates and damaging grades to rise.
School Start Times RING!!!!!!! That school bell starts everyone 's day, but it starts too early. Early school start times are causing students and teachers to be substandard proving why these start times should be pushed to later in the day. Teenagers health could really be on the line due to the early wake up times. In addition, students and adolescents academic performance is not as good as it could be.
Did you know that roughly half of your life will be spent sleeping? Without sleep, you can not think clearly, are unable to physically do things at peak efficiency. Teenagers can find it harder to get to bed, and harder to get up in the morning, because of the changing of their internal sleep clocks. What is worse is that school, homework,and other extra curricular activities can interfere with the sleep cycle. It has been suggested that high school classes start later and end later.
70 percent of teens aren't getting enough sleep. Activities also can interfere with a students sleep. Including any activity you choose to do, it may be sports, gymnastics, dance of maybe even after school club but if they end later that's a problem.
Sleepless in American is a National Geographic documentary on the lack of sleep Americans are receiving each night. The film starts with the statistic that “40% of American adults are sleep deprived” and followed with different effects of sleep deprivation such as: weight gain, delayed reaction time, depression, anxiety, speeds the growth of cancer, and has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Although, there is no scientific evidence to support the need for sleep, it is an important process that allows our bodies to function properly. Several sleep studies have been performed to understand the effects sleep deprivation has on a person. The participants of the sleep trial only received four hours of sleep per night.
Research has shown that parental social control improves youths’ sleep habits (Maume, 2013). Without regulation and supervision of parents, it is likely that these students would not have self control to have regular sleep hours, leading to poor sleep quality. MACRO-LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Macro-level environmental factors are often undervalued in terms of their importance in affecting how much sleep we get.
A report by Newsweek says that “Perpetual lack of sleep is tied to diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression and a shortened life span in adults, underscoring the importance of establishing good sleep habits early in life”(1). We may be fine without sufficient sleep now, but health consequences will show later in life. Diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are already big problems in America. An article by CNN says that “Adolescents that go to sleep at midnight or later are also more likely to suffer from depression and have suicidal thoughts” (1). The mental health of students at Clarke should not be overlooked.
As the world keeps moving the pressure to keep up can become daunting. For young Americans dealing with bills, school, relationships, personal issues, jobs, and more can become extremely overwhelming. Overloaded with these issues, unsurprisingly, so many young Americans find themselves having a difficult time falling and staying asleep. Insomnia is only growing in this small demographic, and the effects can be extensive. From impaired cognitive function to decreased quality of life the repercussions are dangerous and shouldn’t be ignored.
“Like good diet and exercise, sleep is a critical component to overall health,” (“How Much”). Sleep is an essential to every person's’ health. Especially young kids. A better sleep schedule comes with an stable immune system, an increase in healthy growth, and also better blood-sugar levels and a decreased risk of obesity. There have also been improvements in attendance, alertness, and student-reported depression.
Quarter 1 Assessment: Annotated Bibliography Thesis Statement: Due to adolescent sleep patterns, school needs to start at 10:00AM Source 1: The UCLA Health website tells how teenage sleep patterns differ from adults, due to changing bodies, and internal sleep clocks. This informational database is based on college research. The title of this page is “Sleep and Teens”.
“Attendance, standardize test scores, and academic performance increased, while tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression decreased” (Hanes). Many health issues can occur from not getting enough sleep. Although, these issues do not occur when students get the correct amount of sleep. “Sleep is critical to brain development, memory function, and cognitive skills especially among children and teenagers” (Experts). Some of the difficulties resulting from sleep deprivation are impaired alertness and attention, difficulty to solve problems, cope with stress, and retain information.
Sleep deprivation is the lack of sleep needed to function to full potential. While college is known for staying up all night, and cramming for exams, this term of sleep deprivation is starting to take a serious toll. Over the years the sleeping patterns of students attending college and universities has changed dramatically. Studies show that as time goes on the average night of sleep students are getting is decreasing drastically (Jensen, 2003). The way students are falling into this lack of sleep are by forming an irregular sleep-wake cycle, which consists of getting little to no sleep during the week, then on weekends catching up on all the missed sleep.