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Why Teenagers Should Start Later

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No matter what shape or size, every human being needs sleep. The average teenager needs nine to ten hours of sleep every night. For teens everywhere, it is difficult to fit a sufficient amount of sleep in with school, extracurricular activities, social lives, and their excessive use of electronics. Teens suffer from their lack of sleep in school, at home, with friends, and while playing sports; their performance is greatly damaged from the amount of sleep that they get. Even though everybody needs different amounts of sleep, teens still suffer from sleep deprivation because they are not efficient enough with their time. One reason why teenagers are sleep deprived is because they are up too late procrastinating. Teens procrastinate way too …show more content…
Teens intentionally stay up too late so that they can sate their addiction. They are constantly using social media or watching television. According to Eisner Sleep Study, the average time that students go to bed is 11:15 P.M. The Most common activities before bed include watching television and using social media. On average, students get 7.1 hours of sleep every night. Teens are missing out on two hours of sleep every night because they are using their electronics too much. They should go to bed two hours earlier without their electronics. Additionally, the National Sleep Foundation states, “The increasing prevalence of electronics in children’s bedrooms creates a culture of evening engagement and light exposure that negatively impacts sleep time, sleep quality and daytime alertness.” Not only is the amount of sleep affected by electronics, but the quality too. Teenagers act like walking corpses during the day because of their insatiable needs for …show more content…
On top of all of the work that keeps teenagers up so late, they have to wake up early in the morning for school. As a result, students miss out on sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, “After the Minneapolis Public School District changed the starting times of seven high schools from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m., Dr. Wahlstrom investigated the impact of later start times on student performance, and the results are encouraging. Dr. Wahlstrom found that students benefited by obtaining five or more extra hours of sleep per week.” The performance of students in school is proven to be improved when the students receive more sleep. Schools should delay their start time so that their students can receive more sleep. In addition, “She also found improvement in attendance and enrollment rates, increased daytime alertness, and decreased student-reported depression. Many experts agree that adolescents require 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night, however, few actually get that much sleep.” With a later start time, not only is teen’s school performance increased, but their general performance throughout the day. Less teenagers even suffer from

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