CURRENT AGE: 15
CURRENT AGE: 15
NO REST FOR WEARY TEENS
In “Goodnight Moon,” Margaret Wise Brown’s much-loved children’s story, a bunny is coaxed to sleep by saying “Good night” to everything around him: “Goodnight room, goodnight moon, goodnight cow jumping over the moon …”
While that ploy may work with a youngster, it won’t for a harried teenager whose homework pile grows larger the nearer he or she gets to wake-up time.
Sleep seems scarcest for teens, though they require the most rest – eight to 10 hours a night, according to most experts. Few seem to attain those goals, however. In a recent poll of teens across the United States reported by the National Sleep Foundation, few seem to get adequate sleep, and most suffer “profound negative effects” in mood, school performance and cognitive function.
“In America, it’s a chronic problem with teenagers not getting enough sleep,” says Dr. Ramindrajit Sufi, a pediatric pulmonologist at St. Vincent Hospital. “If you don’t get enough sleep and you don’t get all those hormones, you end up not having good growth, mentally or physically.”
According to Sufi, teenagers go through numerous growth cycles involving their brains and bodies, which cause their metabolisms to speed up. However, teens with inadequate sleep have problems creating enough growth hormone to keep up with those processes.
Six teens recently came together to talk about their sleep habits, and most of them said they routinely fall short, often because of homework. Priya Mirmira, an eighth-grader at Zionsville West Middle School, is typical: “I'm in bed physically at 9:30, 9:45. I don't fall asleep until maybe 11, 12 on worse days.” Priya’s school begins at 7:40 a.m.
Most teens’ sleep is circumscribed by a school schedule. Start times usually range from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. But even some home-schooled students with flexible schedules often have trouble getting adequate sleep.
Matthew Stubbs, a home-schooled senior, says he averages about six hours of sleep a night. “I'm doing my best trying to improve my sleep time so that way I'll have more energy during the day,” he said.
Libby Bowling, a home-schooled seventh-grader, says she gets the recommended amounts of sleep. “If I don't though, it’s normally because I'm reading,” she said.
Sleep was so elusive for Jordan Brown, 19, as a junior at Decatur Central High School that he sought professional help. “I didn’t go to bed at a reasonable time and ended up falling asleep in most of my classes,” he said. “And my homework, sometimes I didn’t finish it, I was too tired.”
In addition, Jordan was overweight and troubled by snoring and breathing problems. After being monitored overnight, he was diagnosed with sleep apnea, which was causing him to stop breathing for several seconds, affecting the quality of sleep.
Sleep apnea can cause all kinds of problems, such as increased risk for heart attack, strokes, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. For Jordan, his sleep apnea caused weight gain “and it was also tied with my allergies and my asthma.”
While not all sleepy teens have sleep apnea, they can be a risk to themselves and to others. According to the National Sleep Foundation, approximately 100,000 accidents are caused by teenagers falling asleep while driving.
Even being a little sleepy can be dangerous. “It makes you have slower reaction times, makes you not pay attention, and it increases the chance that you’re going to get in an accident,” Sufi said.
As concern about sleepy teens grows, so have the arguments over the time school should start: Should school start later and risk pushing back other activities to later in the day as well?
“It may be better for some people to start a little later. Unfortunately, the later you start, then the later it goes into the day, and then you run into the same problem that people are staying up at night to do their homework,” says Sufi.
The majority of the interviewees agreed that if school started later, their bedtimes would be later as well. A few, though, go to bed at the same time every night, regardless of when they have to wake up.
Allison Albrecht, a seventh-grader at IPS’s Merle Sidener Gifted Academy, is one such student. “Some people will say, ‘Oh, school starts later so I can go to sleep later,’ but that’s not really the case for me.”
A late start time can complicate other facets of a student’s life. After-school activities such as sports and band practice would be pushed back, which would delay dinner and homework. For students who work after school, the free time between school and job would narrow. For everyone, homework would be pushed back, necessitating another late night.
“If school got pushed back, I have this bad feeling that they’d give us more homework, so I would basically be going to bed at the same time,” Priya said.
However, homework can’t take all the blame for sleepy teens, Sufi said. “The number one problem that teenagers have is electric stuff -- TV, iPod, texting, computer, laptop. Those are the stealers of sleep in teenagers,” he said.
Teens study until they’re tired, then turn to TV or other devices for recreation, Sufi said. However, that equipment acts as a stimulant, which further delays bedtime. Electronics, like video games, are not only addicting, but it’s easy to lose track of time while using them.
Sufi advises teens to find a balance of activities that allows them time for restful sleep. Other changes, such as those made to treat Jordan’s sleep apnea, include not going to bed in a noisy environment, not having a heavy meal before bed, and turning in at a reasonable time.
What can you do if eight hours of sleep is just not realistic?
“What I would recommend is, do what you can and then take a nap,” Sufi said. “A 20-minute nap will refresh the brain pretty nicely.”
But if napping isn’t possible, reorient your thinking, he added. “Homework is one of the most important things you can do as a teenager, believe it or not, so if something else has to suffer for your homework to get done, then that’s probably what has to happen.”
Editor Eric Chen, 18, and reporter Jade Poynter, 13, contributed to this story.
Copyright 2011 Y-Press