By Jessica Brenner
Imagine a classroom full of students, physically there, but mentally and emotionally they are in their beds, sleeping. This is what it’s like to be in an early morning class in the 21st century. These sleep deprived teens are not only like this in school, but also in sports, extracurricular activities and more. As a teen, I definitely know the repeated feeling of stress and fatigue. I’ve heard endless complaints from peers around me about being exhausted, and it obviously takes away from learning and our social lives. School, extracurricular activities, stress, technology and sleep patterns are causing extreme sleep deprivation and health issues in 21st century teens. Later school start times, along with awareness of sleep deprivation in teens among parents, teachers, coaches and teens themselves would help resolve this problem. Like this topic?Follow it on Twitter @ehsteensleep
How do Teens’ Sleep Patterns Affect their Sleep Quality?
Teens’ everyday lives, including their sleep patterns affect how much sleep teens get each night. According to Education Week, teens’ natural sleep cycles begin to shift as they hit puberty. It’s normal for them to not be able to fall asleep until 11pm or later (G. Caimey, 2013). Changes in teens’ bodies are not something that teens have a choice about, and should not be punished for it. Many teens are not able to fall asleep until at least 11pm, and adding on other stress, activities and homework adds to the level of sleep deprivation in teens. This is where solutions such as later school start times are essential to ensure teens are not punished for their bodies sleep cycles. How teen bodies react with sleep deprivation and its causes cannot be changed, but there are steps that can be taken to help teens get more sleep.
How Does Stress and Pressures from Teens’ Daily Lives Affect Their Sleep?
Stress and pressures from school and other activities are an essential cause of fatigue in teens Homework, sports and other activities out of school provide higher levels of sleep deprivation in teens. According to the Christian Science Monitor, “the nation’s youngest students are doing three times as much homework as is recommended” (S. Caspari, 2015). The article then goes on to state, “Kids are not going to give up their extracurriculars, but then they are stuck with all this homework, so the things that get left out are actually really important things like chores, family time, and sleep” (S. Caspari, 2015). Homework and sports have become increasingly overwhelming aspects of teens lives. They are taking up more and more of teens’ time as the years progress, and the value placed on sleep is decreasing dramatically. Sleep is planned around all other activities, whereas everything really should be planned around getting an adequate amount of sleep each night.
Technology and its Effect on Teens’ Sleep
The 21st century is making more and more progress in technology, and teens are becoming more and more sleep deprived because of it. Technology heightens the effects of sleep deprivation in teens, making it harder for teens to function in their daily lives. According to the National Sleep Foundation, “97% of teens had at least one electronic appliance in the bedroom. Having 4 or more was associated on average with 30 minutes less sleep each night” (Carskadon, M. A., 2009). Also, results of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Big Sleep Survey proved that there were significant linear trends between technology use and short sleep duration, later sleep onset and wake lag. (Gamble, A. L., D’Rozario, A. L., Bartlett, D. J., Williams, S., Bin, Y. S., Grunstein, R. R., & Marshall, N. S., 2014, 11). Technology is a growing tool in our society, and although it can be used in many beneficial ways, cell phones especially are keeping teens up at night and causing more lag in the morning.
How Does Sleep Deprivation Itself Affect Teens?
Sleep deprivation causes many health issues in teens, in addition to making them feel tired. The National Sleep Foundation, or NSF, says that teens need at least 8 hours of sleep per night, but only 15% of teens really get as much sleep as they need (National Sleep Foundation., 2015). Furthermore, the NSF writes,
Not getting enough sleep or having sleep difficulties can:
- Limit your ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. You may even forget important information like names, numbers, your homework or a date with a special person in your life
- Make you more prone to pimples. Lack of sleep can contribute to acne and other skin problems;
- Lead to aggressive or inappropriate behavior such as yelling at your friends or being impatient with your teachers or family members;
- Cause you to eat too much or eat unhealthy foods like sweets and fried foods that lead to weight gain;
- Heighten the effects of alcohol and possibly increase use of caffeine and nicotine; and
- Contribute to illness, not using equipment safely or driving drowsy. (National Sleep Foundation., 2015)
Meanwhile, a journal from Education Week states that, “sleep is critical to brain development, memory function, and cognitive skills, especially among children” (G. Caimey, 2013). These statistics prove that teens’ health is drastically affected by sleep deprivation.
Advocate Your School Offer Later Start Times
Later school start times are extremely helpful to ensure students and teachers can be as efficient with their time as possible. Not only can they help eliminate stress, they have been proven helpful to decrease the amount of sleep deprivation teens face. I’ve been fortunate to attend high school in Edina, MN, where ours was the first school district in the US to change its start times because of medical research. The district changed the start times from 7:20 am to 8:30 am in 1996. The later start times found an increase in attendance rates, graduation class numbers, and the students’ average GPA. Also, 92% of parents in Edina said their students were “easier to live with” (Wahlstrom, 2014, 1-3).
What Can be Done to Limit the Amount of Stress in Teens?
Students are overwhelmed with the amount of homework and other outside activities they are responsible to accomplish in a given day, weeknight, and even weekends. Teachers, coaches and parents need to be educated to be aware of how much they are asking of from teens.
Lesson Homework Loads: Homework should be limited in order for teens’ sleep quality to improve. The Christian Science Monitor quotes, “Homework should start at 10 minutes a night for first graders, and increase in increments of 10 minutes per grade, culminating in two hours of homework for 12th-graders” (S. Caspari, 2015).
Reasonable Sports Demands on Time: The time we spend on sports and technology should be limited by parents and coaches in order to reduce stress and sleep deprivation. Although we embrace and value sports highly, many coaches and student athletes need to take a step back and set their priorities straight. Sports are extremely important, but without sleep nothing is possible, especially not high athletic performance. I know, as I play Club and High School Volleyball. Coaches need to be more conscious of how much time they are asking their -young student athletes to commit to with regards to practices on school nights.
Parental Supervision on Technology Distractions: I know it sounds not popular, but our parents also need to help us teens get enough sleep at night. Parents should initiate rules about technology, especially before bed time, particularly at a young age so that teens are trained to get off their phones as soon as possible before bed in order to help them to gain as much sleep as possible every night. I put my phone on “do not disturb” and use a “self-control” app to avoid distractions when I need to concentrate. I know technology is a useful, but we need to be more aware of how much we are using it before bed. School, technology and sports and very highly valued aspects of a teenage lifestyle, but there must be a balance between them and mental and physical health in teens.
Sleep Habits That Work
Although my friends and I talk about being tired, we often don’t know how to possess good sleep habits and get the most out of the little amounts of sleep we do get. An important aspect of solving teen fatigue is providing teens with good time management, to allow for deeper sleep, despite the later bedtimes. I conducted a survey to further my research, and surveyed around 35 teens ages 14-16. According to the survey, on average, students said that they felt that sleep was a 9 on a scale of 1-10, when ranked the perceived importance. Despite this, 91.4% of the participants replied that they do not feel they get enough sleep at night, an average of only 7 hours. A journal from Brown University also proves that teens have never been educated on good sleep habits. The journal explains that many teens engage in unhealthy sleep habits. For example, 97% of teens keep electronics in their rooms while they sleep, and over 75% of students reported drinking at least one caffeinated beverage per day. Teens should have less light at night and more light during the day, and irregular schedules and inconsistent amounts of light at different times in the day cause fatigue (Carskadon, M. A., 2009, 4). Sleep is essential to teen lives, and most of us teens know that. In fact, not only do teens know that sleep is essential, we want to get as much sleep as possible. Yet, teens are still not getting as much sleep as they need. This is partly because teens do not understand what they need to do to optimize the effects of the sleep they are getting. By gaining understanding of what good sleep habits are and how to implement them, students will be able to understand what they can do to use their little sleep more effectively and feel well rested.
Conclusion
In conclusion, teens in the 21st century have grown to be more and more sleep deprived as the years go on, a result of extreme amounts of stress in school and extracurricular activities, as well as technology and just teens’ bodies. Teens, coaches, teachers and other important people in teens’ lives need to understand how much teens are asked to accomplish as well as learn to be more aware of how much they are asking of their teen in order to ensure they can get enough sleep at night. With proper information and awareness of this issue, our community can benefit greatly and become much more efficient, because teens will be awake and ready to take on whatever life throws at them. Sleep deprivation in teens doesn’t just affect themselves, but those around them and their community. Without sleep, teens are not able to function to our full potential and contribute to our society.
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