Sleeping is one of the most important functions in life. It allows you to rejuvenate for the next day and allow your brain to go on autopilot for a few hours.
Sleeping also takes up a huge chunk of time, but for good reasons. According to statistics, many teens spend one-third of their day sleeping - meaning that by age fifteen, you will have spent around five years of your life asleep. This seems like a lot, but it is definitely not wasted time. Most teenagers need between nine and nine and a half hours of sleep each night, in order to function optimally. However surveys show that most teenagers only get six to seven hours. Twenty percent of high school students say that they have fallen asleep in class, me included. In fact, sleep is as important for a healthy body and mind as anything else you do during the day.
One study looked at the relationship between sleep and grades. The study found that teenagers who got more sleep had more A's and B's, while teens who got less sleep got more C's and D's. Sleep is necessary for survival; without it you begin to slowly shut down internally or sacrifice other aspects to make up for the lack of rest. Experiments have shown that rats that are forced to remain awake die in a little over two weeks. Also when rats are allowed to sleep but not dream, they also die in a short period of time.
Dreams stimulate the brain regions used in learning and help us organize thoughts and images from the day into memories. In dreams, many people seem to work through problems they haven't been able to focus on during the day - ranging from math homework to friendships. While scientists don't understand everything about the importance of sleep, it has been made abundantly clear that it influences how you feel when you are awake. Those who have trouble sleeping because of a sleep disorder can have difficulty dealing with school, work and relationships when awake.
Many adolescents actually have a common sleep disorder called a delayed sleep phase syndrome. The disorder, which is caused by changes in the body's internal clock associated with puberty, means it is normal to be a "night owl" at just about the time your family wants to go to sleep. It also means you want to sleep later in the morning. It is difficult to alter this pattern, so teens end up sleep-deprived because school starts early, before the required nine to nine and a half hours of sleep have occurred. I am one of the adolescents that suffer from this disorder, as I choose not to start working until later in the evening and I end up working late into the night.
My late habits have altered my internal clock so that I sleep only around 5 hours at a time and if I go to sleep any earlier than I usually do, I will still wake up 5 hours later. My mind and body has adapted to this type of lifestyle and during the day I definitely suffer in some of my classes where listening and understanding are integral to being successful. More serious sleep disorders include sleep apnea, in which someone temporarily stops breathing during sleep, or chronic insomnia, in which someone regularly has difficulty falling asleep. Thankfully I don't suffer from these conditions, yet, and the summer might give me a chance to recover my lost sleep schedule.
