The Effects Of Sleep On A Public Health Epidemic

The consequences of sleep deprivation during the teenage years are particularly serious. Teens spend a great portion of each day in school when it starts early; resulting in a lack of sleep. Ultimately, sleep deprivation affects a student’s academic performance. When students lose sleep, they disrupt their sleep cycles and their bodies respond by decreasing their ability to concentrate and complete complex tasks. A prolonged period of cumulative sleep deprivation will affect their physical and mental well-being and consequently their capacity to learn.

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.

Sleep deprivation throughout the teen years is a very serious problem, spending most of the day at school, teens who are sleep deprived have an impaired ability to stay alert, pay attention, solve problems, handle stress and retain information. Young

Bryant, N. B., & Gómez, R. L. (2015). The teen sleep loss epidemic: What can be done? Transla-tional Issues in Psychological Science, 1(1), 116-125. doi:10.1037/tps0000020

Russell Foster has an open discussion of reasons why sleep is important to humans. He mentions that “huge sectors of society are sleep-deprived.” On average, teens need nine hours of sleep for a healthy brain performance. But, nowadays teens are only getting about

“Chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common – and easily fixable – public health issues in the U.S. today. The research is clear that adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life. Studies have shown that delaying early school start times is one key factor that can help adolescents get the sleep they need to grow and learn.” (qtd. in Strauss)

All of us are aware about the importance of sleep in our lives. In fact, people that don’t get enough sleep at night may experience a variety of health issues in the long run. Unfortunately, students find it as a hard task to sleep about 8-9 hours a day because they have to wake up early and go to school. This creates a tremendous impact on their physical and mental health.

Over the span of thirty year research has repeatedly shown that adolescents, between the ages thirteen and eighteen, are sleep deprived. With so much time, money, and research put forth to solve this problem, most would believe that a solution has been discovered and in mid stages of implementation. However, after reviewing statistics one can not help feeling disappointed by the gargantuan number of students who still are not getting enough sleep. Why are adolescents still being sleep deprived? Schools have refused to change their start times even though students have repeatedly stated that waking up at such an early time is physically and mentally strainful. Unreasonably early school start times cause various difficulties for students such

Early yesterday afternoon, I sought contact with a couple friends of mine to find sleep had captivated multiple of my friends, unwilling to let them wake up. When later that day I asked them why they had not woken up that morning, I heard they did not actually go to sleep until hours past midnight (compound). Of course everybody stays up late every once in a while, but sadly, many teens grow into the habit of keeping their minds awake at night and sleeping through most of the day, unless they have to go to school, in which case they sleep very few hours at all. Although many teens choose to ignore their need for sleep for multiple reasons, sleep, easily obtainable, does offer solutions to problems and other benefits.

If a teenager were to drive down the road with six or fewer hours of sleep the previous night, he or she would be left as impaired as if driving under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% (Hunter 42). In any other situation it would be against the law to drive like that but so sleep deprivation is an extremely dangerous thing. Sleep deprivation has become a huge problem recently because teenagers have many events after school to do like homework, sports and other things. People usually made themselves a full schedule but they don’t know how to make them good“only 15% of teenagers receiving an adequate nine hours of sleep according to the National Sleep Foundation” (Stickgold 55). Teenagers need a good amount of sleep because of without getting the right amount of sleep it can do harm to teenagers developing brains. Teenagers today need eight or nine hours of sleep if they don’t the way teenagers think would be slower than it should be. There long-term health problems and horrible effects on physical issues to your body. While Some people believe that teenagers can be perfectly fine and well without nine hours of sleep. However, because of the above reasons,” teenagers need the right amount of sleep to remain in mental, academic, and strong well-being “(Vyskocil 68). There are many reasons why sleep deprivation happens to teenagers they have stressful life’s, family issues, things they eat in they eat daily can all affect them from sleeping well all that can affect how they sleep and when they sleep

Research indicates that America’s sleep problems have increased and might be the number one health problem. The average amount of sleep that people get per night can range anywhere from three to twelve hours. According to Dr. David Dinges at the University of Pennsylvania, it is a fact that people who get fewer than six hours of sleep a night do not live as long as people who get seven hours or more. Most people do not realize the importance of sleep or even realize that it is needed to survive. Many people experience sleep deprivation; however it is commonly seen in college students. Irregular sleeping patterns tend to occur in students, which can later lead to long-term effects.

To summarize, this article gives many valid points about how teenagers lack sleep, but it also gives numerous factors from an adult's point of view. Frank Bruni states that getting enough sleep each night makes for a healthy teen and a sane teen as well. The author provides numerous times that a student should not be negotiable with sleep; sleep should be a baseline for adulthood. Another valid point Bruni makes is students are very hyped up with cell phones and other electronics, but with that statement, there are also students who are up because of the amount of homework they are given on some nights.

Did you know that on average, humans spend about 230,000 of their lifetime sleeping? Many people though don’t get the proper amount of sleep they need every day. Middle school aged teens need about 9-10 hours of sleep but many get almost an hour or so less than the recommended amount of sleep for their age. Sleep is very important for many reasons; a good-night’s sleep helps improve alertness, napping can help give an energy boost to both kids and adults, and your internal clock helps you get the right amount of sleep each night.

Teenagers who experience insufficient sleep most likely suffer physical and mental complications. Household’s morning routines cannot change, but school systems might consider opening schools later than usual. Studies done show that the average U.S. adolescent is sleep-deprived and pathologically sleepy.

Although acquiring the basic amount of sleep seems to be an easy task, college students are struggling to snag even a couple hours of sleep, thus significantly affecting their four domains of development during a crucial developmental period in their lives. College students are going through the development period, Emerging Adulthood, which is from the ages of 18 to 25 years old. During this period of time, adolescents tend to focus on their self-development and discover their identity and the four developmental domains are evolving (Grusec & Hastings, 2008). The four domains are: Cognitive, Social, Emotional, and Physical. These domains are significantly affected by sleep deprivation, which is the condition of not having the right amount of sleep. Students are unable to focus on their academics, are unable to socialize, cannot handle their emotions, and their health begins to deteriorate. Sleep deprivation is becoming a major problem in the country and is affecting college students, who are going through an essential time in their lives for which they need to be in their shape. Throughout the nation, 70 million Americans are noted to have difficulties sleeping because of sleep disorders, which is roughly 23 percent of the national population (Gaultney, 2010). With sleep deprivation on the rise for students in universities, many adolescents’ four developmental domains are not developing properly. This paper will address the ways through which sleep deprivation is