Most people don’t understand the importance of sleep or, they do understand but can’t find time in their schedule for it since they are doing so much. Sleep is essential for everyone and is especially necessary during the teenage years.
Research has shown that lack of sleep can cause people to become more irritable, behave rebelliously, and ultimately, lower grades at school. Lack of sleep can affect memory, cause people to develop depression and not think clearly in certain situations. It can affect your abilities to excel at sports, music and academics. Also, not sleeping enough can be deadly for those who drive. 20% of all car crashes are due to sleeping at the wheel. Overall, not having enough sleep can cause a drop in the body’s performance in everything.
Sleep is extremely important during teenage years because your body is changing and requires a lot more sleep than when you were a kid. When you are baby you needed about 20 hours of sleep and then your sleep needs decreased after your toddler age. Then, your sleep needs increase again once you hit puberty. Its importance is that of food and water. Hormones that cause you to grow are released during sleep and this is what causes you to grow. In some cases, you might inhibit your own growth by not having enough sleep.
However, most teenagers aren’t able to get enough sleep. Research has shown that most teens get less than the recommended 9 hours of sleep each day and some even get as little as six hours or less every day. This might be due to the fact that some teenagers stay up late to play with their electronics and also because the brain hormone for sleep, melatonin, is released late at night, around 1 am. While for adults, this hormone is usually released at around 10 pm. This causes the teenager to not be able to fall asleep until late at night and then, they have to wake up early for school and so, they don’t get enough sleep.
In order to try to help yourself get enough sleep, try the following methods:
1. Try to get some exercise during the afternoon, but not near bedtime as this causes the brain to become more active.
2. Don’t drink caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea, or coke
3. Establish regular bedtimes so that your body can get used to sleeping at that certain time of the day.
4. Don’t play video games or surf the web late into the night
These are just a couple of tips that you can try, but you can find a way that works best for you.
Now, here we have a young boy aged 15 years old. His name is Bob and he is a straight “A” student. Bob is also quite good at sports and music. He is an all-rounder. He usually wakes up at 6am and goes for a 5K run and then showers and heads for school. Usually, by the last class of the day, Bob is quite tired and then, immediately after school, Bob heads off to go to soccer practices which lasts for 3 hours. He is spent after practices and comes home at about 8 o’clock. He showers, has dinner and then starts to practice violin and piano, each for an hour long. By the time he’s finished, it’s ten and that’s when Bob starts doing his homework. He usually finishes in about an hour since he is a bright kid and then he goes to bed. However, in bed, Bob usually tosses and turns because he can’t sleep. He finally manages to sleep at about one in the morning. The next day, he wakes up at 6 again. This goes on for about a week and then on the weekends, he just sleeps until 12 noon. This kind of schedule causes Bob to not be quite refreshed and after a while, He starts doing poorly at school and sleeps in class. He can’t give 100% at soccer practice since he is so tired and now, he just practices his musical instruments once in a while instead of every single day.
This kind of packed schedule has an effect on our body and takes a toll after a few years. Try taking some things out from your schedule, and be happy with what you can do within 24hours. When you start putting 30 hour schedules in your 24 hour day, something is going to be lost and that is usually sleep. You need your sleep.
So do Polar bears!
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