Premium Essay

Sleep Deprivation in Teens

In:

Submitted By amiebah
Words 410
Pages 2
Current Event: Sleep Deprivation
The article I read was “Letting Them Sleep In: Sleep Deprivation Effects in Teens” by Elise Duge. Sleep deprivation is something that is common amongst many adolescents. Most teens need about 8½ to more than 9 hours of sleep each night. According to Psychologist and Sleep Disorders expert William David Brown, sleep deprivation affects every aspect of performance. In addition to making you tired and grouchy, Dr. Brown says that it can even lead to car accidents, suicide and homicide. “Dr. Brown says that sleep deprivation can lead to homicide and suicide, because the tendency for sleep deprived teens to react emotionally contributes to extreme or illogical reactions and can cause irritability, anger and many of the drama-filled behaviors we see during this developmental age.” “Dr. Brown’s study of teens at driving age discovered that 75% slept less than seven hours each night, and 17% had fallen asleep at the wheel at least once while driving.”
In addition, lack of sleep can also lead to obesity and drug abuse. Sleep time is a factor in obesity, and with a lack of sleep, teens are more likely to be overweight. They’ll also have a more difficult time losing weight when compared to others compared to those who get a good amount of sleep at night. If students can’t get up early in time for school, they might be drawn to sleep medications or stimulating meds and drugs to stay alert during the day. Dr. Brown and many others feel that sleep deprivation can be helped if school starts a little later. “If delaying school by a single hour will save a single life, enhance performance or improve mood and health, then schools should look carefully at the existing data and make the environment one that will take advantage of the adolescent physiology,” Dr. Brown says. This article relates to health because sleep is a necessary, healthy

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Why We Should Start Later Essay

...Have you ever sent your drowsy teen to school? Teens are being affected by being sent to school to early. All Middle and high school’s need later start times because of this. This problem will not go away until the school board and parents do something about it. High schoolers and middle schoolers need later school start times for better health and sleeping habits which will lead to academic success. Teen health is affected by school starting earlier than 8:30. Do you want teens to have good health as they get older? By pushing school start times to 8:30 you're helping teens all over world with better health. Mental health and physical health is improved. 8:30 doesn’t seem like it's going to help teens and their health but it will. Most teens have trouble falling asleep before 11. Teens have trouble because going to sleep because of social demands, homework,...

Words: 887 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Sleeping Habits

...Getting the right amount of sleep every night is a must if you want your body to function at its highest performance throughout the day. Over half the population in America has admitted to not getting enough sleep. Bad sleep habits can really have a negative affect on teens. There are some tips that a teen can follow to help change those habits to get a better night sleep. Hopefully after reading this paper you will be more informed on how to get a good night sleep. One of the most common tendencies that teens have is staying up to late. The natural time that our bodies have evolved to get the best sleep is between 10:30 and 6. With many teens not going to bed until after midnight or even later you can see where this may affect a teens sleeping schedule. Teens have been proven to be naturally sleepier than younger children or adults and, with the recommended sleeping hours for teens to be between 9 and 10 hours, few are getting anywhere near this amount. Taking long naps is also something that causes many teens to be sleep deprived. Having a non irregular sleep schedule is like trying start your car without putting fuel in it. Taking naps is something that our bodies feel they need but, when your body sleeps when it’s not used too, it won’t be able to get the sleep it needs during the hours of the night your body needs to sleep in order to be able to function at its peak. What we do at night affects everything we do during the day—our ability to learn, our skills, our memory...

Words: 1419 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

School Start Later

...that students can get adequate sleep, school administration does not believe that this should be changed. The school arrival policy at O'neill should be changed for at least one day of the week because it would promote productivity and morale of the students at James I O'neill High School. According to the National Sleep Foundation a study on the effects of sleep deprivation by Wolfson & Carskadon in 1998. “Sleep deprivation impairs the ability to be alert” being alert is very important especially to teens in high school with a good portion of the students driving to school being alert while driving is like lesson one of driver's education,”pay attention,...

Words: 684 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Should School Start Later Research

...students need around 8-12 hours of sleep per day.Since schools have early start times this causes problems for those who need the required amount of sleep.Especially since students are still growing and developing they need sleep. Schools should have later start times, and there are various reasons why this should happen. One reason if school should start later is according to the broadcast “Science says teens need more sleep.So why is it so hard to start school later?” It states that “ Research shows that early school start times are bad for teenagers' mental and physical health.”This shows that waking up early is harmful for many reasons.Especially one that affects your mental and physical health.This is not great since your body is still developing and growing. Another reason to support if schools should start later is in the article “Students could get more sleep and learn better if school started a little...

Words: 418 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Essay On Ethos Pathos Logos

... Importance of Sleep Sleep is a basic human need, like eating, drinking, and breathing. (TRICOLON) Sleep is similar to a stepping stone (ALLITERATION), in that it leads to good physical and mental health, but may be increasingly harder to recover if we fall down. (ANALOGY, EXPLETIVE) Sleep is our body’s way of to repairing and rejuvenating, by repairing tissue, by boosting muscle mass, by releasing important growth hormones, and by maintaining a strong immune system. (ALLITERATION, ANAPHORA, POLYSYNDETON, TRICOLON) If we are unsuccessful in meeting our body’s needs, we may become sleep deprived. Unfortunately, studies have indicated that this may be the case, and that up to 7 out of 10 children don’t get enough sleep, which can lead to physical problems, and mental problems, and productivity problems. (POLYSYNDETON, TRICOLON) Gandhi once said that “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” Even with our surprisingly small (ALLITERATION) amount of rest, right now, in the 21st century, (EXPLETIVE) everyone seems to get around just fine (MEIOSIS). Who needs to work with a clear mind? Who needs to stop relying on 10 cups of coffee?...

Words: 829 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Why School Should Start Later

...This is because some teens have up to 1-2 hours of homework each night and don’t get enough sleep time. Studies have shown that “later classes could help improve teen's performance at school” (Kohut). For instance, if school starts at 7:30 am most students are sleepy and have hard time paying attention. If school starts later at 10:00 am more students will be able to pay attention because they had enough sleep at night. “In more than 40 states, at least 75 percent of public schools start earlier than 8:30 a.m” (Frum). If school did start at 10 am then there would also be less tardies. This means that a lot of students in these schools are stressing out because the amount of homework they have. Teens that are entering college are the one having less sleep. “At the age of 16, the biological wake up time is around 8:00 a.m., and school should begin between 10:00 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. At 18 the biological wake up time is closer to 9:00 a.m., and a class time of 11:00 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. would be most beneficial”...

Words: 995 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Sleep Deprivation

...Unfortunately, we usually take away from our time to sleep to make room for other things. Not getting the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep each night is very dangerous. There are significant dangers and risks that come with not getting enough shut eye and we don’t take them seriously. Insufficient sleep causes the inability to assess the safety of an environment, which can lead to accidents in the workplace. Other risks are obesity, poor heart health, poor mental health, lower mortality rates, depression, and anxiety. In addition to these dangers, having lack of sleep puts us at risk for being involved in automobile accidents. When we skimp on sleep, we are putting ourselves in danger of hurting ourselves and others around us. There are only 24 hours in a day, and as we get busier, we make everything but sleep a priority in our day. What we are really doing is setting ourselves up for destruction. When we are tired or under-rested, our brains cannot process things as accurately as they can when we have gotten a sufficient amount of sleep. William Dement expands on this in “Sleep Debt and The Mortgaged Mind”. “Sleep problems affect virtually every aspect of day-to-day living, including mood, mental alertness, work performance and energy level” (Epstein, 472). When we don’t give our bodies the sleep it needs, it cannot function physically or mentally in the capacity that we need it to in order to be safe. In “Sleep Debt and The Mortgaged Mind” written by William Dement...

Words: 1327 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Teens Should Start Later Essay

...after school activities but waking up early to go to school has more cons then it has pros.The worst is that most education boards know about the bad effects it has on student but choose to ignoring putting their students health in danger.Doctor after doctor have proven that later start times in school would benefit our youth for a while. Later start times have been a topic for years now but until recent years actual change have happened and the result have been mostly positive. Having a later start time to school at least 3 hours later would have an amazing health effect on teens in high school.They would be more awake and would probably have more time to eat a good breakfast. Research at the university of Minnesota found 65% to 70% decrease in vehicle...

Words: 1001 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Why High School Should Start Later Essay

...past two decades The Sleep Foundation has been trying to suggest that high school should switch start times to later (later start times). Teenagers are told they should get around 8 hours of sleep at the minimum but nine to ten hours is ideal (Carroll). Teenagers are going through puberty and require more sleep than the average adult (Troxel). Only one out of ten students are getting the right amount of sleep each night (wake up calls). A typical teen who is sleep deprived are less likely to do well on a quiz or test than a student who is not...

Words: 963 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Why School Should Start Later Essay

...extracurricular activities to later in the day or that later school start times will defeat its main purpose- students getting more sleep. School start times should be later because it improves adolescents’ health, students’ will perform better academically, and it can increase the safety of the community. Our bodies...

Words: 1364 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Should Schools Start Later In The Day

...Director of Sleep Medicine at Children’s National Health System, says “The research...

Words: 1268 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Why School Should Start Later

...Around the country, alarm clocks blare at 6am and tired teens get ready to drive to school. Teens amble and climb in their car to rush to get to school, so that they aren’t late. Adults make their way to work when a sleepy teen swerve into the other lane and hits another car head on. There was a loud crunching noise as the two cars collide, glass flies everywhere while airbags deploy. All of this could have been avoided if teens could get more sleep. Even though the accident was slightly dramatic, it is only one of the side effects of sleep deprivation that can be caused by schools starting too early. Since a lot of accidents have been caused by teens that haven’t gotten the proper amount of sleep, the school start time should be no earlier than 8:30am. In the event that teens are more prone to accidents due to lack of sleep, it’s dangerous to even think about letting them drive to school early in the morning. “Teen drivers are at the highest risk for drowsy driving; however, and preliminary studies have shown that delaying their school start time has a significant effect in lowering the occurrence of such crashes.” (Eight major obstacles to later school start...

Words: 711 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Explain Why School Should Start Later Essay

...many times a day do you feel tired or exhausted, just wanting to go home and sleep and forget all about homework and other commitments that you need to pursue? Do you find it extremely difficult to get out of bed in the morning and get ready for the day? Well, if you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone. It has been excessively studied that adolescents generally have a harder time getting ready for the day in the morning compared to adults; who have lower risk of stress and a higher chance of information retainment. Teenagers go to school from eight in the morning to about three thirty in the afternoon and are expected to do homework from that school day, go to work, practice for sports, and hang out with friends and family and do chores, but yet more times than not, teens are not able to do any extracurricular activities because of how exhausted they are. Studies have shown, teens who begin school at an earlier time have an increased risk of depression, anxiety, obesity, and illness, compared to students who start school at a later time. Starting at puberty, adolescents internal...

Words: 1041 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Sleep Deprivation

...(Bridgemohan, Side-effects 78). The cause of this accident was that Molly, reportedly, pulled an all-nighter the previous night to finish her essay for a college application (Bridgemohan, Side-effects 64). Teens that are overwhelmed and stressed due to school work and part-time job while try to find a way get passed that stress. One usual solution...

Words: 378 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Why School Should Start Later

...recent years, these start times have been creeping earlier and earlier in the morning. Unfortunately, this causes many teens to have to fight their bodies’ natural clock in order to achieve their desired grades and have bright futures. School start times need to be later in the day. With earlier start times, scientists are seeing more and more health problems in teens, many of which are related to sleep-deprivation. Teens need more sleep than people in other stages of life because of the crucial development that is occurring in their brains. That is why sleep deprivation is so detrimental to teenagers. For the sake of our future generation’s health, school needs to start later. In order...

Words: 1960 - Pages: 8