TEENS STRUGGLE TO SLEEP ENOUGH

Sleep is one of life's necessities. Without it, our ability to perform diminishes and our bodies weaken. But some people require more sleep than others.

Many studies have found that people suffering from a substantial lack of sleep often show a loss of concentration, slower reaction times and poorer performance in work and school.

According to the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation, most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night for optimum performance, health and safety. Teenagers need at least nine hours.

But lack of sleep is common for teens today. According to surveys reported by the NSF, average total sleep time among U.S. adolescents decreases from 7 hours, 42 minutes in 13-year-olds to 7 hours, 4 minutes in 19-year-olds. Furthermore, only 15 percent of teenagers report sleeping more than 8.5 hours on school nights.

Lack of sleep is believed to be one cause of low grades and poor test performance among students. For example, a sleep- habits study administered to 3,100 high school students in Rhode Island found that students who reported generally receiving Cs, Ds and Fs obtained on average almost a half-hour less sleep a night than students receiving better grades.

In an attempt to test this assumption, Y-Press conducted an experiment late last summer with three members: Lisa O'Connor, 17, a junior at Cardinal Ritter High School; Andrea Phillips, 16, a sophomore at Cathedral High School; and Brian Reissaus, 18, a senior at Carmel High School.

In the first phase, participants were required to get at least seven hours of sleep nightly for three nights and then take a portion of the PSAT practice test. In the second phase, the trio spent three consecutive nights with grossly inadequate sleep -- less than four hours. They then took an equivalent portion of the PSAT, at approximately the same time of day as the first.

After the tests were graded, Andrea was found to have performed better with lack of sleep, improving on the math section by 19 percentage points and on the verbal by 10 percentage points. However, she reported that she had been distracted during the test she took while well-rested.

"All these people were coming up and they were talking, and I get distracted really easily," she explained.

The other two had worse scores with less sleep: Brian's dropped 16 percentage points in math and 9 percentage points in verbal; Lisa's decreased 8 percentage points in math and 2 in verbal.

While the three performed differently with lack of sleep, they all agreed it affected their moods and behavior. Andrea said she felt "tired and cranky," and was in a hurry to finish the test. Lisa felt "more restless and hyper."

"Sometimes I was out of it," Brian said. "Most of the time I kept going."

He explained that had he been physically active, rather than sitting still and taking a test, he would have been more alert. "When I get physical activity and just keep moving, I'm fine."

Lack of sleep affected the students in other ways.

Brian, who had been sick the previous week but was feeling better, started to feel sick again.

Andrea pointed out, "I didn't really feel like concentrating that much. I was like, 'OK, I'm just gonna get this over with and go home and eat, and then I'm gonna go to sleep.' And in the English part, it was really hard for me to concentrate on reading the passages and stuff."

While teenagers might need about nine hours of sleep a night, these students feel they can function well on as little as seven. "I need seven or eight hours of sleep a night, but I stay up late anyway," said Brian.

While Brian is inclined to stay up late, the girls generally try to get to bed before 11 p.m. "and I wake up the latest I can possibly wake up and get to school on time," said Andrea.

Lisa routinely stays up later to finish homework and other tasks. "Sleep is kind of second to schoolwork and sports and everything else," she said.

The students reported that they generally don't feel rested in the morning. "I'm definitely not a morning person. At school, I'm still in a bad mood until about second period, and then sometimes I lighten up," Andrea said.

Brian often finds himself nodding off during class and sometimes during tests. He's not alone, he said. "Most of my friends at one point have slept through a class or during a class, so I think that it is a problem."

Lisa generally has the energy to get through the school day, but Andrea often feels fatigued.

"I think school just like wears you out, and I think everybody's kind of tired during it," Andrea said.

The students agree that at 7:30 a.m. or 8 a.m., high school starts too early for them.

"Kids are staying up later and later and going to school earlier and earlier. They might be able to keep good grades going, but they're not staying awake through all their classes, so they may not be retaining as much knowledge as they could be," Brian said.

There is a physiological reason why students do not perform at their best early in the morning. According to the NSF, biological changes during puberty affect a child's internal sleep-wake clock, and many teens are not ready to go to sleep before 11 p.m. or later.

Some school officials are trying to accommodate teens' natural sleep cycles. For example, several Minnesota school districts recently have pushed back their high school hours by an hour or more, with good results.

These teens do value their rest and get it whenever they can.

"It's pretty high on my list. It's eating and then sleeping," Andrea said.

"During the summer, it's my only priority," Brian added.

REPORTERS: Meagan Gardner, 11; Julie Kippenbrock, 12; Elaine Lynch, 12.

Who we are

Y-Press is a nonprofit news organization with offices in The Indianapolis Star building. Stories are researched, reported and written by teams of young people ages 10 to 18. For more information, call (317) 444-2010 or send an e-mail to ypress@in.net.

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