Sleep Deprivation in Teens
“From the time they hit puberty until the age of 22, adolescents need about 9 hours of sleep a night to function optimally—to be physically, mentally and cognitively healthy.” (Juliann Garey 1). There is a huge sleep loss dilemma for teens in America where they aren’t getting enough sleep or tire themselves out too much.While most people know it’s a problem, there have been little to no efforts to actually solve the problem. Teens have many reasons why they have sleep loss, ways that sleep loss affects them, and solutions to lessen or get rid of chronic sleep deprivation. School and other time consuming activities can cause teens to not get enough sleep at night. First off, school, specifically school start times and homework, is probably the biggest reason why teens don’t get enough sleep. Homework can take up hours, soaking up more time for potential rest. As homework gets more and more digital, teens are staying up longer, and now with harmful blue light-producing electronics that
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“According to a National Sleep Foundation Sleep in America poll, more than 25% of high school students fall asleep in class, and experts have tied lost sleep to poorer grades.” (TeensHealth.org 1). Teens doing their best in athletics can be affected by sleep loss, as it lowers reaction times. Furthermore, lack of sleep could also dull concentration, and that can be very dangerous when driving. More than 1,500 fatalities and 40,000 injuries in accidents are caused by a driver just being drowsy. On top of any physical problems, sleep loss can cause emotional problems as well. Some teens have reported that they get stressed, sad, depressed, or worse from sleep loss, and sometimes, those emotional problems can cause kids to get insomnia, which makes it harder to get sleep. Sleep loss in any way can be very detrimental to your