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Brooke Silcox

Professor Leonard

English 1201

27 March 2020

Sleep Deprivation in Teens

All teens at least once in their lifetime have pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment.

All teens know how stress and anxiety feels during that hard time. Risking their precious hours

of sleep that they so desperately need. Just to keep up with their grades. When it comes to sleep

teens do not see it as a top priority because they are expected to keep up with demanding

schoolwork, having good grades, sports, extracurriculars, and even a job. Teens cannot fit all of

that into a sixteen-hour schedule when they are supposed to sleep at least eight hours a night.

Schools should start later in the day so that teens can get more sleep, perform better in school,

and fight the risk of becoming depressed.

On March 24th, 1922, Rudolf Steiner had given a lecture about the different stages of

sleep. Which include cosmic imagination, cosmic inspiration, and cosmic intuition. Cosmic

imagination is where one can remember his or her dreams. Cosmic inspiration is where the body

is in the middle ground between the body and soul being connected. The last stage of sleep is

cosmic intuition where there are no dreams (Iancu)(46). As time went on the stages of sleep have

become more developed and more understood by others. Now Sleep is classified as REM sleep

which is rapid eye movement and non-REM sleep where there is no rapid eye movement. Like

Rudolf Steiner’s lecture, there are three stages of sleep. Non-REM sleep comes first then REM

sleep and these cycles are repeated at least three to six times a night. While non-REM sleep is
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occurring your heart rate drops, blood pressure drops, and brain activity is reduced. Stage N1 is

falling asleep and this is slowing down brain activity. Stage N2 is light sleep and your muscles

are now starting to “turn off”. Stage N3 is when your heart rate, blood pressure, and brain

activity drop even lower and the body is not able to move. During REM sleep there is a sudden

spike in brain activity and your eyes start to move rapidly(Iancu)(45).

These cycles are important for brain function and they allow your body to relax while it

repairs itself. In ​Sleep A Wonderful Resource,​ Daciana Iancu tells the reader how with lack of

sleep it affects more than we think it does. She writes, “Studies show that individuals who only

slept four to five hours per night for a few days had decreased cognitive ability, worst behavior,

decreased metabolism, and a less responsive autonomic system.” With fewer sleep teens are

suffering a lot just to keep up with the demanding schoolwork. These signs coming from teens

who do not get enough sleep shows some serious effects of how detrimental not getting enough

sleep can be.

For many years the school systems have not changed. It's been the same routine of

starting school early and getting out early. Disregarding the fact that student’s sleep should be

more important than a time that’s more beneficial for the school district. The benefits of sleeping

not only improve your mental state but your physical state as well. Some benefits of sleeping are

it gives you energy, it’s fat-burning, heart-healthy, boosts your immune system, and helps your

social abilities. Sleep is meant to help your body repair itself and stops further damage. Some

teens may not realize that with a lack of sleep it can cause memory loss, damage organs, cause

weight gain, and lower concentration levels (Benefits of Sleep -- The Impact of Sleep on the

Body). With lower concentration levels it's harder for teens to learn and improve on their
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schoolwork. In Benefits of sleep -- The impact of sleep on the body the author writes, “Lack of

sleep has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease which is where you lose your memory permanently

and it progressively gets worse over time.” With lack of sleep, daily routines can become

dangerous and may cause teens not to be as cautious. Such as driving with lack of sleep you're

not only putting yourself in danger but you’re putting others in danger as well.

The recommended hours of sleep for a teenager are eight and a half hours and that’s the

minimum. Teens should be getting anywhere from eight hours of sleep to ten hours of sleep

every night and only one out of ten teens sleep for that long. With school times starting early in

the morning that means teenagers must go to sleep at around nine (“Common Sleep Problems

(for Teens) - Nemours KidsHealth.”). That’s not accounting for homework, sports, or a job after

school. Teenager’s circadian rhythms aren’t meant to go to sleep early and wake up early. A

circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock. Meaning that it tells you when to sleep and when

to wake up. During puberty teenagers “internal clocks” get delayed by different releasing times

for hormones. The teenage brain produces a hormone called melatonin and it is produced later in

the day than children and adults are. That makes the teenager want to fall asleep later. This sleep

cycle can be so detrimental to some teenagers that it messes with their daily schedules and how

they perform in school (“Common Sleep Problems (for Teens) - Nemours KidsHealth.”). Studies

have shown that with more sleep teen’s attitudes improve and their performance in school

improves. Teens can also lose sleep because of stress. Stress can cause insomnia which is having

a hard time falling asleep. Everyone has had insomnia once in their lifetime, but school can make

a teen so stressed out that they cannot fall asleep at night.

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Fig. 1. Shows the hours of sleep teens typically get once they get older (“Teen Sleep

Deprivation: How to Encourage Healthier Habits.”)

Teenagers get less sleep as they grow up and move up in grades. This can be caused by

the teacher loading on more homework, the stress of studying for tests, and late-night jobs. As

we grow older we have more important responsibilities and expectations that teens have to hold

on to just to get noticed and appreciated. This can be really stressful for a teenager and stress is

one of the leading factors in why teens can not get the sleep they need. Parents or guardians

should help the teens out in these stressful situations. Although the teen needs to grow up and

become an adult they’re still a kid and need help sometimes too.
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Some ways sleep can be affected not by biology but by other factors such as demanding

schoolwork, using technology right before bed, and extracurriculars. These activities delay

bedtime and take away hours of sleep a teenager should be getting. Exposing your eyes to

excessive light right before you must go to bed is not good for you and doesn’t allow your brain

to shut down and fall asleep as easy. Not getting enough sleep makes teenagers more vulnerable

to negative moods. This impacts not only schoolwork but how teenagers treat others and their

overall motivation throughout the day (Shen). With a good sleep schedule, there have been

studies shown to how teenager’s grades have gone up, they’re more motivated, eat healthier, and

are in an overall better mood. This makes teens have a good mindset to make healthier and better

choices for themselves (Shen). One way a teen can obtain more sleep is if he or she is willing to

set aside certain times for their work, phone usage, and time to sleep. Having good time

management can help teens get more sleep if he or she is disciplined enough to set certain times

for different activities.

Without certain times set for bedtime, teens are risking their mental health. Some mental

illnesses associated with lack of sleep are anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and attention

deficit disorder (ADHD). Anxiety is a feeling of worry accompanied by nervousness and

uneasiness about an uncertain outcome. Depression is a feeling of intense sadness for long

periods of time. Bipolar disorder is a period with manic behaviors followed by depression. Manic

behaviors are very excitable moods. Lastly, attention deficit disorder (ADHD) is a lack of

concentration for a long period of time (Bowling). All these mental illnesses have been

associated with teens who have sleep deprivation. It’s scary to see that all of these can be
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prevented just by getting enough sleep. Granted that some of these could be passed down by

genetics but sleep is no joke and should be a top priority for a teen to have good mental health.

In teens changes in behavior can be linked to their sleeping patterns. Without enough

sleep, it can cause teens to become depressed. Depression is more common in young people than

it is in older people and is more common in young females than young males. Depression is a

serious mental illness and can leave short term or long terms effects on the body depending on

how severe it was. Without proper hours of sleep, teens can fall into the misuse of drugs and may

even attempt suicide because with little to no sleep their cognitive ability is not up to speed to

make better decisions for themselves. Also, without enough sleep as a young adult, it can cause

problems in their future with further mental illnesses and may cause unemployment and could

seriously impact their development as the teen gets older (Annalijn). Depression is not the only

mental health problem a teen can get from lack of sleep. Teens can experience anxiety and their

anxiety can get so bad that they could suffer from anxiety attacks and could be too scared and

anxious to walk into school. Resulting in the teen having to be homeschooled because the school

systems do not work for every teen’s schedule.

With less sleep, it can make teens more susceptible to illness. Sleep help boosts your

immune system and helps your body fight off common illnesses like the common cold. By a teen

getting less sleep it’s making the teen’s body weaker and allowing illnesses to take over more

easily. Sleep has a powerful effect on a teen’s body. Sleep allows a teen’s body to repair itself

from daily exposure to illness. Lack of sleep can also affect how fast a body can recover from an

illness or injury (“Common Sleep Problems (for Teens) - Nemours KidsHealth.”). Sleep provides
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so many benefits that teens should know about. Schools should talk to teens more about the

importance of sleep.

Fig. 2. Teenage girls get less sleep than teenage boys (“Almost All Teens Are Sleep

Deprived.”)

Teenage girls are more likely to suffer from sleep deprivation then teenage boys. This can

be caused by the release of hormones some hormones are stronger than others and that can lead

to different emotions and how teens deal with those emotions. Sleep deprivation has a wide

variety of outcomes for teens. Sleep deprivation can cause poor mental health, poor behavioral

problems, and poor improvements in academics (Agathão). Lack of sleep is one of the main

causes of mental disorders in children and teens. Environmental factors also play a big role in the

lack of sleep for some teens. The family’s financial problems can cause a teen to lose sleep over
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stress and if their parents are abusive or they abuse substances it can cause a teen to feel that

stress and anxiety(Agathão). Leading to less sleep and the teen becoming depressed because of

things that he or she cannot control. Poor sleep can lead to sleepiness throughout the day and can

lead to teens not concentrating as much and stops the teens from learning. Some of these factors

are out of the teen’s control so one-way teens could get more sleep if schools start at later times

and give the teens a fighting chance to improve on their mental health.

Some arguments that have been going on for a long time and vary from state to state and

district to district is should schools start later in the day? The arguments have been going on for a

long time, but scientific research has shown that later start times improve the kid’s academics

and performance in school. Some school districts have made the change and have seen their

students improving tremendously. The reason why some people do not want to start school later

is because of sports and extracurriculars (Wahlstrom). The times for those events would be

pushed back because the teens would be let out of school later. That would make the students get

home late and start on their homework later in the night. State test scores for students have gone

up because of later start times. Later start times give the teens a fighting chance to improve their

mental ability and their physical ability.

One way that later starting times would be beneficial not only for the student but for the

parents as well is with school being later in the day and the release time later it would give

parents a better chance to go to their kid’s sports event and other events and not be late or miss

the game. Since most jobs are nine to five and events after school usually start around that time it

makes your parents must leave work early or they just miss the whole event. With later school

start times, it benefits everyone. With research saying that sports teams were not affected by the
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change in times and parents have said, “their teens are easier to live with”, the people who are in

charge still haven’t realized how beneficial later start times are to everybody (Wahlstrom).

With early start times for school, teenagers are stumbling out of bed because they’re most

likely late. Teens are trying to hold on to those last few minutes of sleep before they must

absolutely wake up for school. When teens run late, they often do not have time for breakfast.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it gives your metabolism a boost

(Heissel). Eating breakfast in the morning is a boost for your brain to start working, but with

earlier start times teens are forced to make that sacrifice. Not only are teens forced to wake up

too early and miss breakfast but more importantly they are forced to sacrifice their sleep. Early

start times for students are not good, some classes start at eight a.m. That’s when teens are

naturally supposed to start waking up. So, teens are expected to learn new subjects that could be

beneficial to them in the future while they are still half asleep. This is a waste of time for the

teacher and for the student. This causes more absences in school because teens feel too

overwhelmed and feel like they can catch up with their classes (Heissel). Of course, when teens

miss class, they must take upon the work that they missed causing them to get more stressed out

and miss the sleep that they need to grow mentally and physically. All of this is not the student’s

fault but the fault of the school systems for not putting their student health and wellbeing as a

priority.

Wendy Troxel, who is a sleep researcher, and a mom of a fourteen-year-old who says,

“Every morning I ask myself, How can I -- knowing what I know and doing what I do for a

living -- be doing this to my own son?" In Troxel’s speech, she describes how important it is not

to wake up a teenager before their internal clock. Troxel says, “I'm literally robbing him of his
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dreams -- the type of sleep most associated with learning, memory consolidation, and emotional

processing.” Troxel describes that sleep deprivation in teenagers is not the cause of their doings

but a cause of public policy and how the school systems are too stubborn to change. High

schools around the country start at seven-thirty a.m. or earlier even though there is research out

recommending that schools start at eight-thirty a.m. or later. Being a teen includes dramatic brain

development and sleep plays a huge role in helping with that development. When people

disagree with later start times saying that teens will just stay up later, that’s not the truth.

Bedtimes for teens stay the same because of their internal clocks and with more sleep their

happier and make better choices.

With later start times for schools, teens can get more sleep, get better grades, and fight

the risk of becoming depressed. Teens can now stop that feeling of anxiety and stress because

with more sleep it leads to a healthier lifestyle and makes teens more motivated. Fear of later

start times that make the release times later and having to come up with ways for new planning

after school can be resolved and is not worth the risk of depriving teens of their sleep. Later start

times for school are not only beneficial to the teens but beneficial to the parents and teachers as

well. Teen’s moods have improved and result in a happier harmony in the household. Later start

times allow the teens to have more time to devote their hours to sleeping and getting the rest that

they desperately need.

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Works Cited

Agathão, Beatriz Tosé, et al. “Gender Differences in the Impact of Sleep Duration on

Common Mental Disorders in School Students.” ​BMC Public Health,​ vol. 20, no.

1, Jan. 2020, pp. 1–9. ​EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1186/s12889-020-8260-5. Accessed 26

February 2020.

Annalijn I. Conklin, et al. “Chronic Sleep Deprivation and Gender-Specific Risk of

Depression in Adolescents: A Prospective Population-Based Study.” ​BMC Public

Health,​ no. 1, 2018, p. 1. ​EBSCOhost,​ doi:10.1186/s12889-018-5656-6. Accessed

26 February 2020.

April Bowling, et al. “Shaping Healthy Habits in Children with Neurodevelopmental and

Mental Health Disorders: Parent Perceptions of Barriers, Facilitators and

Promising Strategies.” ​International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical

Activity,​ no. 1, 2019, p. 1. ​EBSCOhost,​ doi:10.1186/s12966-019-0813-6.

Accessed 26 February 2020.

“Benefits of Sleep -- The Impact of Sleep on the Body.” ​Positive Health,​ no. 254, May

2019, p. 5. ​EBSCOhost​,

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s-live. Accessed 26 February 2020.

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Canapari, Craig. “Almost All Teens Are Sleep Deprived.” ​Craig Canapari, MD​, 14 June

2019,

drcraigcanapari.com/less-than-10-of-high-school-students-get-enough-sleep-at-ni

ght/. Accessed 25 March 2020.

“Common Sleep Problems (for Teens) - Nemours KidsHealth.” Edited by Rupal

Christine Gupta, ​KidsHealth,​ The Nemours Foundation, Aug. 2014,

kidshealth.org/en/teens/sleep.html. Accessed 26 February 2020.

Iancu, Daciana. “Sleep A Wonderful Resource.” LILIPOH, vol. 25, no. 96, Summer

2019, pp. 44–52. EBSCOhost,

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s-live. Accessed 26 February 2020.

Jennifer A. Heissel, and Samuel Norris. ​Rise and Shine: The Effect of School Start Times

on Academic Performance from Childhood through Puberty.​ Vol. 53, no. 4, 2018,

pp. 957–992. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edspmu&AN=edspmu.S15488

00418400033&site=eds-live. Accessed 26 February 2020.

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Duration and Quality in Adolescents.” ​Journal of Youth & Adolescence,​ vol. 47,

no. 12, Dec. 2018, pp. 2584–2595. ​EBSCOhost​, doi:10.1007/s10964-018-0899-1.

Accessed 26 February 2020.

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Taylor, Marygrace. “Teen Sleep Deprivation: How to Encourage Healthier Habits.”

Amerisleep,​ 24 Oct. 2019, amerisleep.com/blog/teen-sleep-habits/. Accessed 25

March 2020.

Troxel, Wendy. ​TED​, TEDxManhattanBeach, Nov. 2016,

www.ted.com/talks/wendy_troxel_why_school_should_start_later_for_teens.

Accessed on 26 February 2020.

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doi:10.1177/0031721716681770. Accessed 26 February 2020.