Teen Stress

Next, teenagers are constantly running here and there, trying to keep up with their schedules. From school, church activities, work, sports, friends, family, and any other sort of time consuming plans, they’re exhausted. A study done in 2014 showed that over 22% of high school students work a part-time job. They’ve also seen that working more than 15-20 hours per week, can affect their academic performance. Plus teenagers

Extracurricular activities and late nights lead teenagers not to be fully awake at school. According to the National Sleep Foundation “The roots of the problem include poor teen sleep habits that do not allow for enough hours of quality sleep; hectic schedules with afterschool activities and jobs, homework hours and family obligations; and a clash between societal demands, such as early school start times, and

Adolescents today face a widespread chronic health problem: sleep deprivation. Research shows that getting enough sleep is a biological necessity. Sleep is essential for a person’s health and wellbeing, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). Teens are among those least likely to get enough sleep; while they need on average 9 1/4 hours of sleep per night for optimal performance and health and brain development, teens average fewer than 7 hours per school night, and most report feeling tired during the day (Nationwide Childrens, 2003). The root of the problem is early school start times.

What is causing significant amounts of stress on teens, and what are they using to cope? What is the world doing to help them? What can we do to help? Teens are struggling to cope with the complex issues today. But is stress no more than an easy excuse, because teens are handed tasks that they simply don 't want to do? High levels of stress can also be early signs of possible emotional or mental health issues. What can we as a community do to change this large amount of stress put on teens, because they feel like the amount of work given to them is too much, and adults expect too much for them? Probably too many questions here. Keep your intros shorter.

As a result of a changing body and mind, adolescent sleep cycles have different needs than those of adults or younger children. As a matter of fact, Biologically, sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence -- meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm (“Teens”). In addition to biological change in sleep patterns, teenagers also tend to have eccentric sleep cycles. Obtaining less than healthy hours of sleep during the school week and then catching up on their sleep on the weekends. Most teenagers during the school week, do not get the suggested amount of sleep. In fact, according to a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 80% of teenagers do not get the suggested amount of sleep of 9 hours on school nights (“School Start”). With changing bodies and minds, along with an increased amount of schoolwork and extracurricular activities, teenagers need more sleep than children of a younger age. Experts believe that moving back the start time of school for high school students will improve grades, test scores, and the overall health and personality of many students.

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

Stress on the body can lead to deeper and bigger problems such as depression. Depression in students is a very serious problem and coming on the rise. A group of economists at the Brookings Institute on schoolstarttime.org concluded that, “Students at later starting schools get more sleep, perform better academically, have significantly fewer automobile accidents, report greater motivation and less depression, experience fewer physical health difficulties, are less likely to be tardy or truant, demonstrate better performance in attention level, impulsivity, and rate of performance.” This shows how stress from more homework, less time to do it, and less sleep can lead to many bigger problems and even more problems in the future. The findings from the results of this experiment show that this can be monitored and fixed by making school start at a later time, causing less stress, more sleep, and better lives for the adolescent students in the United States of America.

Many students are not getting enough sleep. In especially middle schools and high school, teenagers are sleep deprived. At the age when they need it the most, teens are not getting enough hours of rest because of how early their school starts. It is very unreasonable that school for teenagers starts early when they need a great amount of sleep. Research shows that “33% of teenagers report falling asleep in school” (Wake up Call, 2014). If students are falling asleep in school, they are not getting the full amount of education and knowledge taught to them. They do not have the energy and positivity to accomplish their best during the school day.

Teens need at least 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep based on their biological clocks. The study found that teens increase their sleep, crash rates decline 16.5% during a period when teens crash rates throughout the state increased by 7.8%. Less sleep could lead to teens to be moody, irritable, and cranky. Inadequate sleep can also result in teens attention, memory, decision making, reaction time, and creativity.Additionally, they will get bad grades, fall asleep during class, and have school tardiness/absences.

Referencing Mary Carskadon, Emily Sohn writes about what the average teenager sleep patterns are and the effects it has on them, As they get older, kids tend to sleep less, young teenagers averaged about 10 hours of sleep. There’s some indication that teenagers may need more sleep than younger kids. Lack of sleep is a increasing problem in the United States, Carskadon says. Schools have been starting earlier these days. Our sleep-wake schedules may seem to be ruled by the need to get to school or work on time, but they're really under the control of our body's internal clock. It's probably not surprising that more than one-quarter of kids polled said that they fell asleep at school at least once a

This may seem like a fairly normal amount of time, but due to the 2 hour shift in an adolescent’s biological clock that occurs after puberty, “a teenager who used to fall asleep at 9:00 PM will now not be able to fall asleep until 11:00PM.” Sleep deprivation can cause a variety of shifts in mood, behavior, cognitive ability, academic performance, and can also cause drowsy driving, which is dangerous to the child’s safety and those around them (Mindell & Owens). The effects of being so overworked are nearly impossible to ignore, yet no one is taking action to help improve stress levels in teens

Teens are so full of potential, so full of life, and so…..sleepy. Research shows that teens do not get the sleep they need on a regular basis. Because of the shift in body clocks, after puberty, it takes longer for teens to go to sleep. This resulting sleep deprivation can produce mood swings, substance abuse such as NyQuil, and immune disorders, as well as busy schedules, exams, and active social lives on top of all this an earlier high school starting times this makes teens suffer from sleep deprivation as well as other health and academic problems (Cline). Teens suffering from fatigue often can’t pay attention

Teen stress is a big issue in today's society. Recent studies have shown that teens may develop more stress then adults. Few adults can remember the truth about adolescence. "Their minds "censor" their memories, and have them believe that being a teenager was was one big party, free of cares and responsibilities"( ). There aren't that many adults around who realize what adolescence was really like. The anguish, the fear, the anxiety, the stress. People don't remember those problems because they want to forget them. Stress is a significant problem for teens. There are many factors that lead into teen stress, such as school, drugs, peer pressure and

Teenagers face so much pressure on a day to day basis. They wake up really early in the morning to get ready for seven hours of school. They come home, have to do homework and study for hours, and then, most teenagers have after school activities. This unables teenagers to get the right amount of sleep they need. With their life revolving around school they are very stressed, and a lot of teens suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. These disorders could be because teens do not get enough sleep, and have a lot of pressure at school, because they do not have enough time after school to finish homework, and they want to have a life besides school, and have time to spend time with their families, and friends.

Many people in high school, mostly teens, experience dozens of pressure in their life. To be specific, Schoolwork. Most teens want to excel in school, but want to have a social life or play some kind of sport. One thing that teens don’t understand is that once you’re out of high school, you have college, and then maybe graduate school. Our education will not be over just in High School. You have to work hard and these four years of your life, will impact everything that you do. If you mess up even once, it may ruin everything. This article is named, “Teens Biggest Stress? School.” It has been featured on MSNBC.com. It is written by, “The Associated Press”. It explains how 13-17 years old have the most stress in their high school life.