Walking through the hallways of North Penn High School at 7:00 AM, you will find that almost every student you pass by is either holding a huge traveling mug full of coffee or tea, or carrying an energy drink. Whether it is from Dunkin Donuts, Wawa, Starbucks, McDonalds, or from the coffee maker they have at home, caffeine is a necessity for students. (See our current poll on front page to vote for your favorite coffee)

Because we do not get enough sleep, we all rely on caffeinated drinks in order to function throughout our days. Yet, if we all got more than eight hours of sleep, we would all be able to have more energy and would not need coffee to survive. We all know this will never happen though. It seems like in today’s fast-paced world, slowing down is not an option. Today, students try to maintain a part-time job, get good grades so they can get into a good college, be involved in clubs and sports—because colleges love that—and, of course, try to have a social life. In addition, there are always more responsibilities and things to do besides school-related activities, like finding time to clean your room, walk the dog, or do other chores.

Some students also decide to work a part-time job—because we all need money to go out, pay for gas if you are a junior or senior, and buy more coffee. However, if you start working on weekdays and weekends, you will, most certainly, be negatively affected by sleep deprivation if you really want those good grades to remain the same after your start your new job (this coming from someone who at some point during her junior year had to work for more than eighteen hours a week, kept an almost constant GPA, attended meetings for two clubs, and still tried to work out in between her busy schedule)

Of course it did not last long because my vision would get blurry in class since my eyes were so tired, and paying attention was nearly impossible. Moreover, I would drink more than three cups of coffee a day; one in the morning, one before work, and one after work in order to be able to stay awake and do homework until around 2 AM. As if not enough, I would also seclude myself from people because most of the time, I would be half asleep. Overall, my lack of sleep showed to be very damaging to my health; so if you are getting less than four hours of sleep, please reconsider your sleeping habits.

With the same stubborn determination to do as much as possible in one day, there are also many students who always try to put too much on their plate and completely forget about sleep. However, how bad exactly is this to our health?—extremely bad, actually! Yet, we all go on without much sleep, and not worry about the consequences.

A survey was given out to 96 North Penn students at random. In the survey, they were asked to check the boxes with the amount of sleep they usually get and the reason why they stay up late. After gathering the data, the results turned out to be the following:

From the data shown above, it can be concluded that almost every student in North Penn High School is sleep deprived given that only 17% of the students surveyed are getting the recommended amount of sleep for teenagers.  Many of the students who are not getting enough sleep stay up late enjoying recreational activities like watching TV and playing video games. These are very common in today’s world since there are so many technological distractions that keep us away from getting enough sleep. Also, many students would rather talk and socialize with their friends through Facebook or Skype, and this also influences the amount of sleep they are getting. For most others, however, their lack of sleep comes from homework and their involvement in after school activities, sports, or both.

Like these students, at the beginning of my senior year, I kept working, not as many hours as before, but I was still sleep deprived; considering the fact that I decided to take multiple AP classes. However, during the first semester, I decided to take psychology. After a while, my psychology teacher started to lecture us on sleep, and of course, sleep deprivation. Shortly after going over that chapter, I started to work only weekends and tried to go to bed earlier whenever possible. This brisk change was caused by the awareness of the effects sleep deprivation has in the short and long term. Therefore, it is important to, at least, be aware of how detrimental this is to your health.

Effects of Sleep Deprivation on:

Mood:

-become irritable

-noticeable lack of motivation

-anxiety

-could eventually develop symptoms of depression

Performance:

-noticeable lack of concentration and attention

-reduced alertness

-decrease in reaction time

-distractibility

-lack of energy and fatigue

-poor decision making

-lack of coordination

-restlessness

-forgetfulness

-prone to make mistakes

Health:

-High blood pressure

-heart attack

-obesity

-diabetes

**Moreover, severe sleep deprivation can increase risk of age-specific mortality

It is extremely important for students to be aware of these symptoms, given that, in severe cases, it could potentially kill you. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatigue caused by sleep deprivation proved to cause more than 100,000 traffic accidents every year, thus showing how prevalent sleep deprivation is in today’s world.

Although it is very hard to try to squeeze in an extra hour or two of sleep, students should definitely try to do so. This will improve their learning efficiency and they will mentally and physically, feel better. However, I know that, sometimes, you really have to stay up late because of certain projects and homework that must get done by the next day, or doing other things that you might consider priorities; but do try to manage your time better since sleep deprivation is a very serious matter that should not be taken lightly.

http://www.aasmnet.org/resources/factsheets/sleepdeprivation.pdf

http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/sleepteen.aspx