Dangerous Circadian Rhythms Summary

In the article, “Early school starts can turn teens into Zombies’”, Stephen Ornes emphasizes how schools that start early can deprive students’ health. One study shows that early school start times can disrupt the consistency o the body’s circadian clock, which can cause health problems such as depression and obesity. Another reason for sleep deprivation is that the body goes through changes that include their sleeping process. The hormone, melatonin, is secreted later in the night, which makes the circadian cycle shift in a later time. These aspects could lead to troublesome symptoms such as lack of attention on the road. However, there are solutions to this problem. Students intake stimulants

A rhythm is something that is regularly repeated. All living organisms experience rhythmic changes which tend to coincide with seasonal or daily environmental changes. Most organisms have an internal biological clock called endogenous pacemakers, which are influences by external environmental factors called exogenous zeitgebers, these control periodic changes. The sleep wake cycle is a circadian rhythm that repeats itself every 24 hours. However these can become desynchronised, resulting in a disruption of your biological rhythm. It can be disrupted by many factors, including Jet lag and shift work.

It is a well known fact that teenagers in general need more sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation: “[teenage sleep] is as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage stress of being a teen.” When schools start as early as 7 o’clock, it puts students health at risk. Adolescents already have a natural shift in their internal body clock, or circadian rhythm when it comes to sleep. Puberty allows this to happen, causing a “sleep phase delay” of about two hours. When teens can't fall asleep until late and school starts so early, they aren't getting nearly enough sleep. Lack of such, according to CDC, makes the individual

         When children hit puberty they experience a delay in their biological block which in turns causes a shift in melatonin. Melatonin is the natural hormone in a person’s body that notifies them if it is time to sleep or time to wake up. A distraction in this can cause many behavior health and mental health issues such as substance abuse, depression or sadly suicide. Only about a tenth of the population actually get the right amount of sleep they need. The minimum amount someone should sleep is eight full hours. In the

One of these benefits is that the students and the teachers would both obtain added sleep, therefore; their health would increase. The recommended hours of sleep a night for teens is over nine hours and an abundance of teens do not reach this number due to late nights and early mornings (Boergers, 1). If students received the recommended hours of sleep per night, their health would increase greatly. An immense health benefit of getting enough sleep per night is that it lowers depression (Boergers, 2). Some health risks that accompany not receiving enough sleep are obesity, drinking problems, tobacco smoking, and use of drugs (Viadero, 5). Sleep deprivation can also cause anxiety and depression. Therefore, if schools started later, students would, overall, be healthier. Another pro to arriving at school later would be the

Early school start times prevent many students and teachers from getting a full nine hours of sleep per night. Some people say that waking up early will help prepare them for later in life; however, this is actually hurting them because of the likelihood of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and many other impacts to students health. Schools should begin later in the morning because it will improve grades, student-athletes that participate in school , and the overall health of the students and teachers.​ Starting school later in the day will increase the overall health and productivity of a student. Students could develop serious mental health issues and diseases which would ruin them and those around them. The following excerpt is from the book The Promise of Sleep written by William Dement and

Bruni refers to statistics of scientific studies of scientist when discussing the growing mental issues of teens. Flags are being raised not only because of suicide rates, but because sleep is beginning to have an effect on the overall body. Fingers are now being pointed towards parents for being the reason of unhealthy habits. Sleep deprivation is becoming a larger problem causing physical, emotional, and mental issues; Frank Bruni expresses strong evidence when referring this problem to the fault of our society.

While reading “Why School Should Start Later in the Morning” written by Emily Richmond, it is stated that, “We have to convince school systems this has to happen for the health of kids… it’s an absolute requirement.” With that being said, school board officials are not just changing the starting time to later at random, but more so to help improve students’ health all around. With not enough sleep students can become sleep deprived which can lead to many health issues. Students who do receive enough sleep will have improvement with the tendency of impulsive, on the scene decision making. Gonchar also states that “teens going through puberty have a late release of “sleep” hormone melatonin…” With the late release of the hormone melatonin, students going through the

In the article it mentions how "...the American Academy of Pediatrics added its potent voice to the push for later start times, calling it a public health issue". The average teen is supposed to get eight and half hours of sleep, but bewteen waking up at 6 am, going to school for 7 hours, then having anywhere between 2-3 hours of after school activites, and then numerous hours of homeowrk, a teen can only expect to get 5 hours of sleep, which leads to teens being sleep-deprived. Similariy, the text says, "Insufficient sleep is an epidemic: The average teen is chronically sleep-deprived and suffering from some of the same symptoms as adults with serious sleep disorders, according to the group’s report". From this alone, teens are tired in the morning which leads to tardiness, lack of attention, and less able to

They compared the scores and grades from the earlier start times and saw a tremendous difference. This shows that delaying school is worth it if students perform better and that starting school early negatively impacts students ' lives in school. Lastly, according to the “Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours” article when kids don 't get enough they often become cranky and moody. Additionally, their moods could change abruptly and randomly. When students are like this they are more negative and have a bad attitude to learning. They often get bored and zone out or don 't participate. Also, studies show that having a positive attitude and posture will help you perform better on tests and assessments. If students are moody all the time it will negatively impact their lives in school. To sum up, sleep deprivation causes many risks and problems in students ' lives by making them to tired to focus in school, not being able to perform well in school, and being moody. Sleep deprivation not only impacts students live in school, but out of school too.

Candice Alfano, who is a clinical psychologist and psychology professor created the National Institute of Mental Health. This is the study of whether children who have experienced inadequate or disrupted sleep are more likely to develop later in life depression or anxiety. I believe that she is researching this study very well. Alfano and co-investigator Cara Palmer are performing an experiment by restricting sleep on 50 children between ages 7 and 11. They are performing this experiment to figure out exactly what sleep deprivation does to the behavioral and psychological patterns of emotional risk. The results of this experiment proves that inadequate sleep has an impact on children's emotional health by creating negative emotions and turning positive ones into negative.

Their health is affected because students may not be getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep also known as sleep deprivation can include: “weight gain and eating disorders and increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular problems, and diabetes; reduced immunity; depression; anxiety; substance abuse; mood swings; behavior problems; suicidal ideation; and potential impacts on brain development” (Why). The recommended amount of sleep for growing teens in middle and high school is eight to ten hours a night (MacMillan). The recommended amount of sleep for teenagers is difficult for many teens to achieve because of how early school starts and how late they get home from school related activities the night before. For example, if a student was in basketball they could have practice from after school to five or later, or they could have a game an hour away. After their practice or game they could have a lot of homework and need to study for a test they have the next day. Students then go to sleep late, still having to get up early the next morning and go to school to take that test. The amount of sleep also has to do with the way the teen brain works. Emily Richmond says, “Adolescents’ ‘internal clocks’—the circadian rhythms that control a human’s responses to stimuli and determine sleep patterns—operate differently than those of other age groups. It’s typically more difficult for adolescents to fall asleep earlier in the

In various studies, school districts that shifted from 7:30 to 8:00 a.m. saw more benefits than those that shifted from 7:15 to 7:45 a.m.”-The scientific american. Many facts say like this say that school needs to be set at later times. Many studies say that sleep is the most important thing needed for sleeping, isn't it ironic that in many cases schools are responsible for decrease of sleep? Melatonin a hormone that your body releases that basically helps you stay awake, but the melatonin in your body doesn’t start to kick in until later in the morning. Thus making it harder for the kids who start school earlier to

During puberty the sleep-wake cycle of an adolescent changes. This change called “phase delay” creates about a two hour later sleep onset time and wake time in adolescents during puberty that causes teens to get their best sleep between the hours of 11:00 P.M. and 8 A.M. (Kanwal; Figlio; “Wake up Calls”). During adolescent years, a teen’s sleep drive is modified. The concentration needed to fall asleep moves slower which makes it take longer for a teen to fall asleep (Kanwal). Biology is blatantly telling us to start schools at a later time for the sake of

Many individuals, especially adolescents, do not function well early in the morning. “…many teenagers are going to school with their brains essentially in sleep mode” (Kaufman, 2001). This makes it difficult to retain information and in return use the information they have learned later on according to Robert Gerson, a physician and parent (Heinen, 1996). There is a reasonable explanation for why adolescents need the sleep they need at the times in which they need it, or do it for that matter. “Their circadian rhythms, determined by release of the hormone melatonin and other factors, were telling them to stay up later (even if their homework was finished and the day’s chores complete) and to get up later. On basic biological level, many had no more control over that circadian switch than they did over growing facial hair or breasts” (Kaufman, 2001).