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A student yawns during a high school graduation ceremony. Teens are getting less and less sleep, a new study finds. Just one-third of 18-year-olds report getting seven or more hours of sleep a night. That is far less than what experts recommend.
KAREN/FLICKR/(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
8 comments:
This is sad because of so many teens missing sleep and immersing themselves in whatever teens do. I can't believe that some people think that four hours, four measly little hours is even close to enough for a full day of high school/college/work, yes even work. My mom comes home at 11 and leaves at 4:30 in the morning because she has such a big project at work. Anyway, this was cool though because I thought that it would be mostly from the cause of the uprise of social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.,but it was BEFORE they became popular, so that's out. I liked this article because sometimes I don't want to go to sleep and then I read this. So when my dad tells me to go to bed, I should probably listen...
Before, I thought the the main problem that made kids go to sleep was social media, but now I'm realizing it's not. Like the previous blog post by Jaime, if you were studying a test, get the information in your head and then go to sleep! But, I feel like there's another problem to this problem, which is time management for students and parents who have a job. Sometimes, (like at work especially) your boss/teacher gives you an assignment without giving you much time to do it, which is unfair. But, you could see if you can either finish your other homework earlier or in class then do the project, or just leave the extra for later, right before class. I agree with Grace, because teens should be getting their full 9 hours of sleep.
Here is a link explaining the problems with sleep and what is wrong with children not getting sleep (just incase you didn't know already):
http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/sleep/sleep_problems.html
This link shows the 5 stages of sleep, which are: 1/2 light, 3/4 deep, and 5 REM (rapid eye movement). I think another main problem is that teens don't go through this cycle enough (which occurs for 90/100 minutes per cycle), and by the time they finish 3 cycles, they are awoken because they are in their light sleeping range of time in the cycle. I think another thing that would help is planning your sleep schedule accordingly to the cycle (so you aren't woken up early in the morning because you are in your light sleep phase).
I never knew that not having enough sleep was a current problem for teens and tweens. Getting around nine hours of sleep, even though it is necessary, would be very tough for me because I would have to get into bed by 8:30 to be asleep by 9:30 to wake up at 6:30. This makes me think a lot more about my time management and making sure I don't commit to too many different things after school. I think I need to make sleep more of a priority.
I think that I usually get about 9 hours of sleep, which is about what I should get. I do think that I would have to try to wake up earlier on weekends because I go to sleep at around 10:00 and still wake up at about 6:45.
I think that this video was very helpful. It also gave us one of the most important clues to living a successful life. I usually wake up around 6:00 and get to school at 7:15. Even though I do wake up pretty early, I go to bed at 7:00 - 7:30. My mom has taught me one of the many great keys to life. Go to bed early, wake up early. Then, you have time in the morning to do all of your work with the energy that you have. Then, after that, you have leftover energy to use throughout the day. I am always energized at school, except when I don't get as much sleep as I need to. Also, this is very important in the real world. My dad is a brain surgeon and he has had surgery in the past where he has to do brain surgery for 37 hours without breaks or sleep. This is one of the main keys to a successful life. So get some sleep!
I didn't realize that teens get that little sleep because I do not want to be in that position. It turns out that 15 girls and boys who live in urban areas are the least likely to report that they get more than 7 hours of sleep, which is a 20% increase since 1991! That is crazy! What I think is also crazy is that the teens aren't even aware of it and so they are so harmless that they can't even stop themselves from going to sleep that late. They think when they get 4 hours of sleep they are fine and so they don't change. Kids need to know the importance of getting a proper amount of sleep each night!
This article was very informative and honestly, I was surprised that many high school students get 4 hours of sleep per night. However, I do not agree with social media being the problem and there was not much evidence to back this theory up. Personally, I believe it is the stress levels and are extremely over scheduled. Teenagers are currently dealing with community service, extra activities all to get into college and prepare for their future. Although this article was extremely informative I did not agree with their theories.
I think that this is a really important topic. I think that one possible way to fix this is for schools to either decrease (not get rid of) the amount of homework or try. Or they could try to spread out tests so that you were not studying for more than one or two tests at a time (decreasing the amount of time spent studying at night). However I think the biggest problem is just recognizing the problem. I can never tell if I am fine with only 8, 9, or 10 hours of sleep. My big sister always sleeps late and wakes up early and I can never tell whether she is tired or not.
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