Teen Health Issues

How Long Should A Teen Sleep ?

Most teens would be found sleeping his way through his midway through his first period class. The eyes are found open, but the brains are asleep. Teens must have at least 9.25 hours of shut-eye every night, as per the recent studies. This will help them to function well in every field they are associated with. To wake up at 7:30 am, they must go to bed by 9:00 p.m. About 8-9 hours of sleep each night is mandatory for all teens. This is the right sleep that will assist you in achieving your goals in life. But unfortunately, most of the teens don’t get enough sleep. Do you know why ? I know you will have lots of answers in queue. Let us pick a few, but the most common reasons to lesser sleep in teens.

• Bad habit of staying up late and then over sleeping for school is the most common cause. Most teens when were kids, used to study till late in the night and go to bed very late. This used to make them late for school and hence had to wake up early after sleeping late. This reduced their sleeping time.
• Frequent night outs with peers also cause sleepless nights.
• Addiction to movies and TV shows also have made the sleeping patterns miserable. You won’t believe how teens crave for watching those late night TV shows, late night thrillers, action movies and many more. Most teens who are stuck in their studies and other work the whole day tend to watch the idiot box at night after completing their work.
• Heavy study pressure and academic assignments are also a major reason for spending nights completing them.
• Teens who are engaged into some unlikely creative art, also tend to start with their activities after the world goes to sleep. This way they can hide their activities successfully.

What Science Says ?

Adolescents don’t feel hormonally sleepy until 11 or 12. There are no techniques that can change basic cellular rhythms. Why fight it? Try to manage it.

Our body has a circadian system. The circadian rhythm resembles that of an internal biological clock, which works roughly as a 24-hour cycle in all the processes in a living organism like the biochemical processes, physiological processes or behavioural processes. This internal clock is temporarily reset in a teen’s body which makes you fall asleep late and even wake up late. This is because of the brain hormone, known as melatonin. In teens, this hormone is produced much later at night than in kids and adults. This makes it harder for teens to sleep at proper time. So science says that it is the age and development that causes sleeplessness. And we often get late in waking up and starting our day. So we tend to squeeze our sleeping hours to 5-6 hours every night. Missing a couple of hours from our big sleep does not make any difference to us. But it does actually.

Why We Need Sleep ?

Sleep is needed in every aspect of our life. To fulfil your capabilities, sleep is a must.

• Sleep is responsible for your increased attention and concentration.
• Do you know why do teens undergo a frequent mood swings, its the lack of sleep.
• Improper sleep can also make you lose grades as you will be unable to study properly and sleep in class.
• Your ability to beat the scores in athletics will also be affected by lack of sleep.
• Slowed responses are also another very common symptoms of sleeplessness.
• You start feeling drowsy while driving. According to the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, more than 100,000 accidents, 40,000 injuries, and 1,500 people are killed in the U.S. every year. The reason is crashes caused by drowsy and tired drivers. The more number of people are seen to be below 20s.
• Emotional troubles like sadness, irritability, anxiety and depression are also linked to sleep.
• Sleep helps in keeping us physically healthy. It slows our body systems to re-energize us the following day after sleep.