Homework Help: Health: Social Health: Sleep Deprivation

RRRING! Your alarm clock goes off at 6 a.m., 6 hours after you went to sleep (Anonymous 2).More than half of all teenagers are sleep-deprived. The National Sleep Foundation says that 63% of adults get less than their recommended 8 hours of sleep (Kowalski 16). If you get less than eight hours of sleep per night and you are a teenager, more than likely you are sleep deprived. The National Sleep Foundation says that most teens need at least 8 ½ hours of sleep every night, but only about 15% get that amount (Anonymous 2). In a collection of data recently studied a chart was provided on the hours of sleep children should be getting.

Children Needing Varying Amounts of Sleep as they Grow

Age (years)	Sleep (Hours)
5	11.0
7	10.5
9	10.0
11	9.5
13	9.0-9.5
15	8.5-9.0

These are the Minimum Amounts your Child should be getting (University of Michigan Health Systems 1).

Studies show that when in teenage years that’s when they need at least eight to nine hours of sleep each night. American teens get two hours less than the average 9.2 hours of sleep they need each night for optimal functioning (Kowalski 16). Without this need being met after awhile sleep deprivation develops. When this occurs the body can not function properly and the body can do less each day that it does not get enough sleep, especially at school or a job. When students do not get enough sleep it leads to a lack of motivation and attention in classes, leading to a drop in grades in classes.

Sleep Deprivation is a lack of sleep. It results in a lack of attention and an apathetic attitude during a day. More than seventy percent of all teens suffer from Sleep Deprivation and more than half of all adults do.25% of all teens get less than 7 hours of sleep each night (Anonymous 2). Since most teenagers go through their day tired and half asleep, some of their bad grades could be the result of this sleep deficit. Teenagers should be getting at least eight to nine hours of sleep each night. Adults don’t need quite as much but should be getting somewhere in between seven and eight hours of sleep per night. Some people make the false assumption that they can get through their day with a few less hours of sleep. By losing sleep a person is further lengthening the day in which they perform their activities. When those activities start cutting into sleep, the process begins where that person will constantly feel bogged down and unable to perform tasks within a reasonable amount of time.

If a person finds they are falling asleep in classes or feeling tired or groggy during the day, chances are they suffer from Sleep Deprivation. If a person uses an alarm clock they also run the risk of suffering from Sleep Deprivation (Kowalski 16). A lack of enough sleep can make you too sleepy to learn, and it also makes you fell tired, anxious and very irritable (Anonymous 2). Some other signs of sleep deprivation are you find it difficult to stay awake all day, sleep longer hours over the weekend, or tend to nod off in the early evening(Dyksta 170). If a person is experiencing any of these feelings or all of them they suffer from Sleep Deprivation.

Going to bed at midnight every night is not a very good idea. Considering most of the high school population in the United States must wake up around six o’clock each morning to get to school on time that means that each child that stays up late writing papers, or doing math problems, is less likely to function well the next day at school. With only six hours of sleep each night instead of the suggested eight to nine hours, a body can not handle not getting enough rest and in turn makes a person feel tired because they have not gotten enough sleep. This causes that person to feel like they can not concentrate in school, typically with long lectures and watching movies. ’ The less you sleep, the more likely you are to have difficulty in school, ‘notes Amy Wolfson at the College of the Holy Cross, You can’t learn math if you sleep during class. Even if you are awake, sleepiness impairs concentration (Kowalski 16). Most students feel that since these activities are so boring they are not of real importance and fall asleep during them. Some students try to make an effort to stay awake so they can learn the material that the teacher wants them too, but the urge to fall asleep overcomes the pressure to learn sometimes. Students that have a sport or club they attend after school are forced to do their homework at a later time in the day. Usually when they get home they eat dinner after they shower, and are supposed to do homework. But, who wants to do homework after you just attended a two hour meeting? Who wants to do homework if you are wet, tired, with your muscles aching? Sometimes these people that need to do their homework after dinner at a later time never do their homework. This is why some students have bad grades in their classes. In a recent survey I conducted I was startled to see that a great majority of the students surveyed were only sleeping about six to seven hours per night. Under those circumstances most of these students function pretty well. If they went to bed earlier wouldn’t this lead to a rise in grades. It would surely raise the attention span of the typical teenager. Aren’t teachers and other high authority figures always saying, get a good nights rest, before going to a big test, an audition for a music ensemble, or some other important event. The brain processes memories and you still learn while sleeping. SO if you get a good night sleep typically you should do better on tasks you perform the next day (Kowalski 17). What if students got that amount of rest before every test and quiz they would take in school? Grades would tend to get a little bit better over time. If some students actually got into the habit of doing this every night before a test or quiz grades might improve dramatically, especially if the student were getting a good nights rest each night! Also another statistic in my survey was that all of the kids surveyed said they fall asleep in class or they would like to. Concluding from that kind of input I feel that most of our student body here at Hudson suffers from Sleep Deprivation. If teenagers don’t sleep in their classes during the day, most of them (that don’t sleep in class) tend to take long afternoon naps, about two to three hours. This closely relates to symptoms of a sleep deficit. If teenagers are tired the entire day at school, how can they learn anything?

Many of the teenagers surveyed also wanted to change the time that school started. A numerous amount of students said they would prefer eight o’clock till three o’clock during the day (keeping in mind there are activities before and after school). Some of them thought that with this later school time they would have more time for sleep. Unfortunately adjusting the time that you schedule an activity for doesn’t do much to solve the problem of a sleep deficit because all other activities after school are pushed back a half-hour so you still lose sleep.

Ways to stop this sleep deficit have been developed. Try going to bed a half-hour earlier, don’t drink coffee or sodas with caffeine in the evening, and tape any TV shows that would keep you up past your bedtime(Anonymous 2). Another example is through a study conducted at the Henry Ford Sleep Research Center. A study led by Timothy Roehrs, Ph.D., at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Research Center found that people who up their shut-eye by one hour are 25% more productive than sleep-deprived ones. (Dyksta 170).

If a teenager is sleeping in all of his classes, or can barely keep his eyes open because he hasn’t gotten enough sleep would you consider this student to be worthwhile to teach? If teenagers don’t pay attention in school because they are too tired teaching them isn’t going to do much. Furthermore, if a student is too tired after his/her daily activities to do homework he/she is likely to do a poor job on it or not even do it. When students do not get enough sleep it leads to a lack of motivation and attention in classes, leading to a drop in grades in classes, which is why students need more sleep, to improve their grades.

Homework Help: Health: Social Health

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