Scarce Sleep

Approximately ⅓ of our lives are spent sleeping. Sleep is one of the basic needs we require daily to function. It’s essential to our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Sleep promotes memorization, analytical thinking, creativity, bolsters our immune systems, helps regulate hormones, enables the recovery of muscle and tissue, and helps regulate our moods. On the other hand, inadequate sleep can lead to poor academic performance due to lack of attention, an increased risk of obesity, a higher chance of partaking in high risk behavior, reduced reaction time, and mental health disorders such as, anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. The benefits of sleep clearly outweigh the consequence, so why are so many teenagers unable to get enough of it?
​

---

Author

Maitri Naik
​Outbreak! 2020

​According to the CDC, teens need about 8-10 hours of sleep every night. Nationally, 72.7% of students, about 7 out of 10 high schoolers, don’t get the sleep they need. In Massachusetts, that number becomes 76.4%-82.5% of high school students that are sleep deprived. I am a part of these     statistics. On the good days I get about 7 hours of sleep and on the bad ones I only get 4. Many of the other students at my high school are the same. Quite a few of my friends get even less sleep than I do. Some may even pull an all nighter. One reason for the lack of sleep is the shift in our circadian rhythms, which makes it difficult to go to sleep before 11 pm. Another is the early start times forcing us to get up around 6. In addition, our days are packed between homework assignments, sports, social lives, and family time.
            In my town, the School Committee has been working on trying to change the school start times so that middle and high schoolers don’t have to get up so early. Currently, this has been put on hold due to coronavirus, but I hope that these changes will be implemented in the future.
 
         
 
 
Works Cited
Owens, Judith A, and Miriam R Weiss. “Insufficient sleep in adolescents: causes and consequences.” Minerva pediatrica vol. 69,4 (2017): 326-336. doi:10.23736/S0026-4946.17.04914-3
“MN and National Data on Teen Sleep.” Minnesota Sleep Society, www.mnsleep.net/school-start-time-toolkit/why-improve-sleep-for-teenage-students/mn-data-on-school-start-times/.
“School Start Times Study: Andover Public Schools - Official Website.” School Start Times Study | Andover Public Schools - Official Website, www.aps1.net/2033/School-Start-Times-Study.
“Sleep for Teenagers.” Sleep Foundation, 5 Aug. 2020, www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/teens-and-sleep.
“Sleep in Middle and High School Students.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 Feb. 2018, www.cdc.gov/features/students-sleep/index.html.
“Why Is Sleep So Important?” Benefits of Sleep Hygiene, www.unitypoint.org/livewell/article.aspx?id=b8411be0-64c3-455e-8dbf-751925b41705.