Between extracurricular activates, sports and homework myself and I'm sure many others, rarely even have the option to go to bed earlier than 10pm. Besides this, a study was done by Anne Wheaton from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta Georgia. Her study says that during adolescence a teenager goes through a "natural shift in their inner body clocks". This shift makes it so teenagers feel naturally tired around 10pm-11pm. Going to bed any earlier then this is difficult. The study also shows that in order for teenagers to function the best, they need between 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep per night. The majority of teenagers are not meeting these requirements which impacts them in a severe way. It causes teenagers to lose a big portion of their sleep cycle called the REM cycle; a cycle that helps to control mood swings in all people. A lack of sleep has been shown to be leading to increased risk for obesity, depression and drug use in teens.
American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that schools should start no later then 8:30am in order for Teenagers to be fully functioning and ready to learn at school. But in America, the only states who have the majority of schools reaching these guidelines are North Dakota and Alaska. While many schools have changed the time school begins in the morning, it will take some time for massive change to happen.
~Ally
Websites used:
https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/survey-finds-us-schools-start-too-early
1. I wrote a post about this topic because I knew teenagers around the world struggle with early mornings.
ReplyDelete2. the biggest struggle I had while finding this post was finding the correct hours while I was researching. Every website/professional has their own varied opinion on how much sleep teenagers should receive, finding the most accurate number was a struggle.
3. When readers read this post I wanted them to make a change. I know there has been a little more controversy on this topic recently but I wanted to be able to spread the awareness further.