Sept. 6, 2012
HealthChips: No more sleepless nights
HealthChips is a weekly blog focusing on healthy living and wellness. Come back next Thursday for the next edition of HealthChips.
School's back in session and summer's almost over. Let's face the facts, no more staying up until hours late at night expecting to sleep through the next day. Yes, we know, waking up early again is a pain while many still haven't gotten out of that wacky summer sleep schedule (nocturnal, anyone?). But don't fret, help is here! In order to prevent sleep deprivation and face-plants on your desk, here are a few tips.
The biggest piece of advice we can give you is, get the full eight hours a night of sleep. Yes, we've all heard it before, but believe it or not, teenagers need more sleep than other people do. Usually eight and a half to nine hours is ideal, but of course sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. Being a teenager is a tough job- juggling school, extracurricular activities, homework, social demands, part-time jobs and much more. With all that pressure, it's hard to even consider sleeping for eight or nine hours.
It may not seem like much time to give up when there are two projects to finish and a math test to study for, but sleep deprivation adds up. Tired teens can find it difficult to concentrate and stay awake in class and too little sleep contributes to mood swings and behavioral problems. Also, attention please, student drivers out there- drowsy driving can lead to deadly accidents, so sleep is a must.
Why are teens sleep deprived? Well, for each teenager it may be different. Some people just don’t have the time to get a full night's sleep with their busy schedules. Experts believe that a teen's biological clock is set for two hours later than people of other ages. Studies by psychologists have been conducted to show that at puberty teens go to sleep later than when they were kids.
For all of those teens that can't go to sleep at a regular hour each night, there are a few things that should be changed in order sleep at a normal time. Try establishing a reasonable bedtime and wake time and keep it consistent throughout the week. Even creating a bedtime routine to do every night such as doing a quiet activity before you sleep or doing something that definitely will make you sleepy. All of the teen coffee drinkers should beware to not have any caffeine near bedtime. There are also some teens that have extra energy before going to bed, so to get rid of it, they should try some daily exercises a couple hours before going to sleep.
Missing those valuable hours of sleep can prove to be harmful. Time management is key so that homework is not being done at one in the morning. A good night's rest can help a lot the next day when you need to focus on that major English essay or participate in an important discussion.
School's back in session and summer's almost over. Let's face the facts, no more staying up until hours late at night expecting to sleep through the next day. Yes, we know, waking up early again is a pain while many still haven't gotten out of that wacky summer sleep schedule (nocturnal, anyone?). But don't fret, help is here! In order to prevent sleep deprivation and face-plants on your desk, here are a few tips.
Teens need a full night's rest to be fully functional. You don't want to end up doing a face-plant on the desk.
It may not seem like much time to give up when there are two projects to finish and a math test to study for, but sleep deprivation adds up. Tired teens can find it difficult to concentrate and stay awake in class and too little sleep contributes to mood swings and behavioral problems. Also, attention please, student drivers out there- drowsy driving can lead to deadly accidents, so sleep is a must.
Why are teens sleep deprived? Well, for each teenager it may be different. Some people just don’t have the time to get a full night's sleep with their busy schedules. Experts believe that a teen's biological clock is set for two hours later than people of other ages. Studies by psychologists have been conducted to show that at puberty teens go to sleep later than when they were kids.
For all of those teens that can't go to sleep at a regular hour each night, there are a few things that should be changed in order sleep at a normal time. Try establishing a reasonable bedtime and wake time and keep it consistent throughout the week. Even creating a bedtime routine to do every night such as doing a quiet activity before you sleep or doing something that definitely will make you sleepy. All of the teen coffee drinkers should beware to not have any caffeine near bedtime. There are also some teens that have extra energy before going to bed, so to get rid of it, they should try some daily exercises a couple hours before going to sleep.
Missing those valuable hours of sleep can prove to be harmful. Time management is key so that homework is not being done at one in the morning. A good night's rest can help a lot the next day when you need to focus on that major English essay or participate in an important discussion.
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Schools didn't always start this early, and there's no reason they have to do so - especially now that we have so much evidence showing that early start times are both dangerous & counterproductive. Schools can and have changed to more traditional, later start times only to find that everything else readjusts - and teens even get more sleep per night. In most communities, though, vested interests and myth have kept the early hours in place. We're trying to change this at www.StartSchoolLater.net, a Maryland-based grassroots coalition that's trying to do what local efforts have failed to do for over a decade. Check out our website (www.StartSchoolLater.net) & online petition ( tinyurl.com/82leprp) for more information.
Coupled with the homework load, it's a serious problem.
My bus comes at 6:15 in the morning. To get ready in time to make the bus, I have to wake up at 5:30. In order for me to get the "nine hours of sleep," I have to be asleep by 8:30. That is ridiculous. During the summer, the sun hasn't even set by this time. Besides, with sports practice, I don't get home until 7, giving me an hour and a half on some nights to do all of my homework, eat, walk the dog, shower, and get ready for bed.
Forget Girl Scouts, a social life, relaxation, or family time - that can only happen on the weekend. During which I also go to church and have still more homework.
There is something seriously messed up about this system if Sleep, School, and Sports take up 95% of my time.
Naturally, the thing that has to give is sleep. More often than not, I have to function on less than 6 hours of sleep. When the homework load is heavy, I go to bed after midnight, which is (at the most) 5.5 hours of sleep. I've had to function on about an hour of sleep before. And I get more sleep than most of my friends, on average.
The sad part is, the more I try to be a good student and do all of my homework, the harder it is to do the next day. Time management alone will not stop this problem. If I want adequate sleep, I'll have to give up my sport, and then I'll be overweight from lack of exercise. There literally is no way to be completely healthy as a good student. You have to pick your poison: lack of sleep or lack of exercise.