Snooze more than less
Think of what people normally do in their daily lives; two important aspects of our lives are simply sleeping and eating. Between these two necessary routines, healthy sleeping habits are just as important as a healthy diet. However, teenagers don’t give it much thought. It turns out that inadequate rest can impair many aspects of their lives; as a result teenagers really need to figure out a way to improve their sleeping habits from now on.
American teenagers remain ignorant about the amount of time they spend on sleeping, and they never realize its critical role and the hazards of not getting enough of it. An article in the health magazine Prevention states that 60% of American high school students feel tired during the day and 15% report falling asleep at school (Van Tine). This is not a fake statistic; on the contrary, this is exactly what is happening in normal high schools. But what is the criterion for daily sleeping time? Prevention magazine also gives a series of statistics that are astounding. Students aged 7-10 need at least 9 hours of sleep and students aged 12+ need at least 8 ½ hours of sleep (Van Tine). Since students pay no attention to it, instead of going to bed by 10 p.m., they tend to kid around, chat online, or simply do nothing. But no matter what, they are just not falling asleep. As time goes by, sleep loss is becoming the most potential killer who puts those kids’ health at risk, and this type of risk is not that easily compensated by sleeping more on weekends in a short period of time.
What are the causes of not getting enough of sleep? For those diligent students, is “using up time studying” the only cause for it? For those lazy students, is “playing video game” the only cause wh...
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...ore sleep and wake up rested making it through the following busy school days.
Works Cited
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VanTine, Julia. "Help Your Kids Get the Sleep They Need." Prevention 53.9 (2001): 54. Student Resources in Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Willingham, Daniel T. "Are Sleepy Students Learning?" American Educator 36.4 (2013): 35. Student Resources in Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
However, not everyone gets the 7-9 hours of sleep they need on a regular basis. In a study done by the National Institute of Health, one-third of Americans get less than 7 hours of sleep and more than 70% of high school students are not getting enough sleep on a school night (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 2012). Sleep deprivation is slowly becoming a global issue that the general population, especially students, are not very concerned about. This lack of concern is worrisome because sleep deprivation can have negative effects on a person’s lifestyle, especially on their physical health and their performance in
Sleep is one of our basic needs to survive and to function in day to day operations, but not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. Some people can survive on very little sleep, i.e. five hours a night, and some people need a lot of sleep, to the extend that they are sleeping up to 10 to sometimes 15 hours a night (Nature, 2005). According to Wilson (2005) the general rule states that most people need from seven to eight hours of sleep. The deprivation of sleep in our society in continually increasing with the demands in society increasing work loads, the myth that a few hours of sleep is only necessary to function properly and that sleep is sometimes considered as killing time (Nature, 2005). Sometimes sleep deprivation is also caused by other situations like sleep disorders, i.e. sleep apnea, chronic insomnia or medical conditions such as stress (Wilson, 2005).
For some high school students, sleep is not considered a necessity – but rather, a luxury. Sports, extra-curricular activities, and Fine Arts programs play an important role in students’ lives and require a significant amount of commitment and dedication. Social life aside, some students have taken the additional endeavors of acquiring jobs, participating in volunteer activities, and taking extra Advanced Placement classes. With too many tasks to fulfill in a twenty-four hour day, high school students are forced to substitute for the most essential condition of all: sleep.
Tweed, Katherine. "Sleep deprived." Science World 19 Apr. 2010: 5. Educators Reference Complete. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
One of the many arising problems of America’s students is they are becoming sleep deprived. The busy daily schedules of children and teens are not allowing them to get enough sleep. “Less sleep is unhealthy especially with the new research that as teenagers move through teenage years, they need increasing amounts of sleep. Nine hours per night is the necessary amount to avoid behaviors associated with sleep deprivation” (Final Report Summary, 2001). Among other things, sleep deprivation is causing students to sleep during class instead of being awake and aware. When the students are sleeping in class, they are not retaining information being taught to them. Researchers have now proven that the majority of adolescents retain more information later in the day. Contrary to this information, America’s school systems are programmed to begin early in the day, which according to the sleep rhythms of most teenagers, they should still be sleeping.
Sleep is a behavior universal to all people, yet it remains largely a mystery. Chronic sleep deprivation has become rampant throughout western society, for a number of reasons. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of sleep deprivation, with major objectives being to identify what sleep is, and the reasons for sleep. An emphasis is also placed on the effect, symptoms, causes and ways to combat sleep deprivation. These areas are of particular interest to those seeking to investigate sleep deprivation, or individuals who suffer from sleep deprivation by investigating the symptoms, causes and strategies to combat sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation is a major problem among today’s youth. Only 15% of youth reported getting more than 8.5 hours of sleep on a school night. Teens tend to stay up and sleep in late on weekends, disrupting the natural sleep cycle. This makes it harder to sleep during the week. This can cause a variety of sleep disorders, including narcolepsy, insomnia, sleep apnea, among other things.
Were you aware that teens tend to have irregular sleeping patterns that can harm their body and the way it functions? When it comes to sleep, teens are inclined to stay up very late during the week and wake up very early in the morning. On the weekends, they seem to gravitate more towards waking up very late to catch up on the sleep that they missed earlier in the week. Now that you know what the causes of having irregular sleeping patterns can do to a teenager’s body, you will be able to see the positive and negative effects of what not having enough sleep can do to one’s self. These facts will be explored through the articles “Should Schools Start Later” by Justin O’Neill and “Why Schools Should Start Later in the Morning” by Emily Richmond.
(Teens4) Work schedules for teens are also a contributing factor. Teens who work more than fifteen hours a week after school and on the weekends have less time for sleep. Teens typically stay up late and sleep in late on weekends which can affect the quality of their sleep. “If parents and teens know what good sleep entails and the benefits of making and sticking to a plan that supports good sleep, then they might re-examine what they think ‘essential activities’ truly are” (Teens5). Sleep deprivation can affect the way the brain functions during the day when teenagers are need of it the
"How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?" National Sleep Foundation. N.p., 2013. Web. 6 May 2014. .
Sleep is vital in order for them to be healthier and do better academically. The world needs to take time to find ways to control sleep deprivation that is continuing affect others today. There is so many negative aspects of the scarcity of sleep that can have an impact on one’s life. However; there are still many different ways it can be avoided. Sleep deprivation is dangerous and has consequences that can be short term or long term. This is the reason for students and those around them need to see the importance in maintaining good sleeping practices. If we don’t change this problem students or even everyone could just end up suffering. We need to manage the way we sleep everyday and alternate into a more fitted sleeping atmosphere that will have a positive return in the end. As a whole, dealing with a highly situation like this can make a difference in so many lives for the better in this
Many times people think they can accomplish more if they could eliminate so much sleeping time. However, they are only hurting their productivity if they lose sleep. Two articles deal with the issue of sleep deprivation. The College Student Journal published an article about the grade-point average of college students and sleep length, while U.S. News & World Report produced an article dealing with the lack of
Carpenter, S. (n.d.). Sleep deprivation may be undermining teen health. http://www.apa.org. Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/sleepteen.aspx
Fifty six percent of students report being tired throughout the school day, which can lead to missed information and confusion (Wysong). According to this statistic, over half the students in class are not going to achieve their maximum learning potential in school. In order to avoid this problem, a teenager's brain typically needs to sleep from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am (“High schools starting later to help sleepy teens”). However, most high schools require students to be in class as early as 7:15 or 7:30 am. As a result, many adolescents simply do not have the opportunity to get enough rest. Changing the traditional school time to start later in the day will benefit adolescent sleep cycles, promote learning, and prevent disease by regulating the body. Ideally,...
Peri, Camille. "10 Things to Hate About Sleep Loss." Coping with Excessive Sleepiness. WebMD, 2005-2014. Web. 9 May 2014. .