Students Lack Shut-Eye

September 23, 2009  
Filed under Feature

As your alarm goes off, you press the snooze button and go back to sleep, delaying the time you have to get ready. However, soon you have overslept and you have to race to get to school on time. Does this sound like a normal school morning for you? Most teens have experienced mornings like these when they were up late doing homework or just messing around.

“I get about six and a half hours of sleep a night. I’m tired when I wake up, but half way through first block I’m fine,” junior Hope Armstrong said.

Although sometimes students are up late, it’s not necessarily their fault.

According to kidshealth.org, studies show that during the teen years, the body’s internal biological clock is temporarily reset, telling a person to fall asleep later and wake up later. This change seems to be caused by the brain hormone melatonin which is produced later at night for teens than it is for kids and adults. This can make it harder for teens to fall asleep early.

“I’ve noticed that I get tired later than I used to,” junior Amy Barnes said.

Many teens do not become tired until 10 or 11 p.m.  The problem with this is that most OHS students wake up around six, resulting in only getting about seven hours of sleep. It may not seem like much less than the suggested 9 to 10 hours, but repeating this five days a week every week, adds up. Studies show that teens are actually being deprived of sleep. [SinglePic not found]

Symptoms of this include:
- difficulty waking up in the morning
- inability to concentrate
- falling asleep during classes
- feelings of moodiness and even depression

If you don’t get nine hours, those symptoms may sound familiar.

Some people may think nine hours sounds ridiculous; however, teens need more sleep because they are growing physically and mentally. If you do get the suggested amount of sleep, you will probably find you feel more refreshed and can go through your classes with more ease.

How do you get the suggested hours of sleep? Trying to get to sleep at around the same time every night is a good start. Your body will program itself to get tired at that time if you stick with it long enough.

Another way to fall asleep faster is to exercise mid-afternoon. You should try to avoid exercising right before bed, though. That can just give you more energy and make falling asleep harder.

You should avoid eating or drinking caffeine at least six hours before bed.

On the other hand, there may be times you cannot go to sleep because your homework is not done. The only thing you can do to fix that is to work on your time management skills so you do not waste as much time and can fall asleep sooner.

However you get the hours in, it would be to your best benefit to get the suggested hours of sleep. You may find that your grades, attention span and attitude get a daily boost.

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Chelsea Jamison

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