Are The Z’s Worth The C’s?
Teenagers are not getting enough sleep nowadays. Whether it’s from staying up to do schoolwork, texting friends or other reasons, sleep deprivation has become an epidemic in our society. Teens are supposed to be getting nine hours of sleep per night, but instead only sleep six or seven hours. About 72.7% of high school students reported getting insufficient sleep in 2015, so that statistic is probably much higher now (American Physical Therapy Association).
The Nest. surveyed SSA students about their sleep habits and received 370 responses. The results were definitely shocking. A majority of students said they go to sleep at 11 p.m. or midnight, and over half get only six or seven hours of sleep a night. The results show that an overwhelming 85% of students feel they do not get enough sleep on school nights. Only 12% of 8th graders, 17% of freshman, 20% of sophomores, 27% of juniors and 14% of seniors said yes to getting enough sleep. The comparison shows that 8th graders and seniors feel the least rested of the school population.
What can be done to fix this issue? Some of the popular remedies that help our students are white noise, music, reading, and melatonin. However, this still might not be enough as many of the students do not feel fully rested, which is detrimental to their mental health and brain function. Some of the reasons for not being able to fall asleep are lots of schoolwork, extracurriculars, or spending too much time online. I recommend for students to start trying time management. For example, getting as much work done during school as possible – that way if someone has an extra curricular, she does not have to worry about more school work after. Also taking time for self care always helps me; taking a relaxing bath, doing a face mask, and watching a movie are very relaxing. I recommend having a self care night including these things at least once a week. With a little support and small changes, hopefully the sleep deprivation problem gets resolved soon.
Below are the graphs from the survey:
