By Sam Schrepferman and Nick Boose, Editors
Sophomore Ellie Tattoni wakes up almost every morning wishing she went to bed earlier the previous night. She feels like not getting enough sleep affects her awareness of her surroundings.Tattoni gets good grades but she thinks getting more sleep makes people aware of their surroundings.
Just like Tattoni, many more students are having the same problems with sleep. These problems affect the amount of work students get done in class, their ability to drive properly and many more issues concerning their well-being.
The way sleep takes a toll of the students body and life is noticeable. Work ethic becomes less and less. The attention span students have during school become shorter. Even the appearance of students start to show the amount of sleep they are receiving every night.
Studies and survey were conducted to show the teen sleep patterns and why this is becoming such an epidemic.
What’s the big deal?
The constant battle with modern-day teens is getting the proper amount of sleep. They are told the proper amount, but the reality is that more than half of teens aren’t getting it. What many students don’t understand is that lack of sleep can have serious effects on every aspect of their lives.
It is scientifically proven that adolescents need more sleep. Teens tend to have irregular sleep patterns across the week and typically stay up late and sleep in late on the weekends. This can affect their biological clocks and hurt the quality of their sleep. The right amount of sleep for the average teen is about nine and a half hours of sleep. Although this is the proper amount of sleep adolescents need, only so many students are receiving it. At Kaneland about only eight percent of students are receiving the proven amount of sleep needed according to Brown University.
Teens will experience serious side effects due to the lack of sleep that are mentally and physically altering.
“With the lack of sleep, teens are more likely to become depressed, have negative physical health, poor school performance, school absenteeism and drowsy driving,” author and research scientist Atlanta Danice Eaton said.
Not only are students affected emotionally but also in their basis of their everyday lives, including their education.
Educational Matters
When teens lose sleep they become more vulnerable to the conflicts within their school life. The conflicts include the grades they receive, paying attention in class and the overall life aspect of their school life.
“The more sleep you have, the better you will function during school,” junior Matt Alfrey said.
Many students who aren’t receiving the proper amount of sleep are spending their time slaving away finishing their homework and cramming their studying in for a big test the next day. Especially with the schedule change at Kaneland, students are having a hard time adjusting. Due to having up to four more classes and 40 minutes less of time in class, students are being forced into a new routine.
Humans are creatures of habit. They stick to one standard routine and it takes a while to change it. If our habits are changed if greatly affects us.
Just like everyday life if anyones sleep patterns become changed they are strongly affected by it. The sleep everyone get helps them last the whole day and accomplish what needs to be done.
With all the schedule changes and amount of homework given out, students are having a harder time adjusting to the their new life at school.
“The amount of homework that I do overnight makes me tired and sleep the next morning,” sophomore Kaylee Ferrell said.
The early morning starts to the school day have a noticeable effect on students. Kaneland students have been used to started class at 8:14 in the morning, but are now starting class at 7:35, making sleep at a greater issue. The early morning starts may be a burden to many of the students, but administration claims that the effects for moving back the start time for school would have a more extensive effect on the community.
Early mornings make it more difficult for students to focus in class, particularly if the proper amount of sleep from the night before wasn’t reached. Many students can be less active in the morning and have little motivation to be active or awake during the class.
“Mornings are not my favorite time of the day. I love sleeping in. The mornings make me feel so tired,” sophomore Jordan Bednowicz said.
On Thursdays, however students get the chance to sleep in. The Smart Start on Thursdays provide the opportunity for students to be well rested. The extra hour gives students a chance to sleep in once a week and to have extra time to do homework or school work in the morning.
Although the majority of students get a chance to sleep in, many clubs have taken advantage of this time and meet at the same time school would start. This takes away the extra amount of sleep students get the chance to have every week
Even though many club members like student council have priorities to take care of on Thursday mornings, students have taken advantage of the Thursday morning late start.
“[On] Thursdays, I feel well rested for school,” freshman Julia Schafer said.
With the extra sleep teens get on Thursdays make them more active and happier to start of the day. Their emotion and attitude is more positive and active.
Thought and emotion
The amount of sleep a teen receives can also affect the way they remember events or ideas and their emotions. Learning in school becomes pointless if the lessons you learned in school aren’t remembered for the next day.
Studies show that with the lack of sleep students’ emotions can become unclear and at an uneven keel. Also, the lack of sleep affects students.
Scientists measuring sleep have found that the lack of sleep deprivation leads to lower alertness and concentration.
With this lack of sleep reaction time slows .This affects your everyday life with regular activities related to walking writing and even driving.
Driving into effect
Along with school work, driving is another part of student life that can be affected by the lack of sleep.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the lack of sleep causes the driver of a car to become drowsy and fatigue. This causes more than 100,000 traffic accidents each year, and young drivers are at the wheel for more than half of these crashes.
“Drowsiness impairs your ability to focus and make good decisions,” drivers education instructor, Ernie Colombe said.
It has been reported that 65 percent of students who have been in a previous accident have reported driving while sleepy, compared to the 35 percent of the subjects who have not been in a crash.
“As soon as you notice drowsiness, try to avoid driving. Pull over, get out of the car and walk around to get some fresh air,” Colombe said.
The amount of sleep students are receiving during the night it’s a recommended amount of sleep to be driving on. Only six percent of students have gotten the recommended nine hours of sleep, and 58 percent have tried to catch up on their sleep over the weekends.
“ The drivers who drive when they’re tired scare me. I feel like they are going to drive off the road,” Ferrell said.
Turn off not zone off
For teens, there are so many distractions surrounding them, trying to hold their attention. After school activities, homework and especially cellphones distract teens for what’s important.
Electronics grab the attentions of thousands of teens. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks hold and keep adolescents from getting tasks done.
A study from the Journal of Pediatrics, published a survey of Philadelphia-area teens. It was found that two thirds of the adolescents tested had a television in their room, one third had a computer in their room, 90 percent had their own cell phone and 79 percent had a personal music device.
“These technological devices activate the mind. It’s like having a stressful work conversation just before getting to bed,” Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Dr Jonathan Pletcher said.