Health & Science
A Blind Brook High School Student Publication
January 2019
Time for Students to Prioritize Sleep By Amanda Weinberg ‘20 t is 11:00 pm, the night before a big test. You can’t help but release a big breathy yawn as you aimlessly stare at the clock. It’s been a long day. You’re downright exhausted. You want to go to sleep, but still feel unprepared. Just another hour won’t hurt, right? Well, that extra hour may seem trivial during the moment, but in reality, it is an inevitable gateway to anxiety, depression, an inability to concentrate, and poor grades. Inadequate sleep habits can send you down a never-ending vortex of sleep deprivation, as what you think is helping you in the present is truly wearing you down in the long run. The demanding pressures of high school cause teenage stuPhoto/Abby Strauzer dents to be a common victim of A tired Blind Brook student falls asleep during their math class. sleep deprivation. With schedules cluttered with homework, assessments, and extracurriculars, students are often left feeling overwhelmed when trying to balance it all. At some point, something’s got to give. Unfortunately for a majority of students, that something is sleep. A recent poll from the National Sleep Foundation shows that more than 87% of high school students run on less than 8 hours of sleep. Classified as a public health epidemic by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2014, sleep deprivation is a problem that has become unavoidable in the typical high school student, and the institution has labeled the issue as urgent. The adolescent brain requires eight to 10 hours of sleep every night in order to develop properly. Sleep is imperative to the efficiency of various brain functions. John Peever, director of the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory at the University of Toronto, states that sleep serves to re-energize the body’s cells, clear wastes from the brain, and support learning in memory. When a lack of sleep prevents the brain from carrying out these processes, long-term health problems skyrocket: immunity, high blood pressure, permanent lack of concentration, high risk of diabetes, heart disease, and low sex drive have all been directly correlated to sleep deprivation. The bottom line is that prioritizing sleep is a necessity for students of all ages. Although it may seem like late night study sessions will help you get better grades, they will leave you in a state of exhaustion, making you unable to concentrate and perform at your greatest potential. So please, do yourself a favor and get some sleep. Need some help? Here are some tips and tricks to break out of the cycle of sleep deprivation. 1. Get off that phone Repeated studies at Harvard University show that the blue and white light given off by technology screens prevent the brain from releasing melatonin, making it difficult to fall asleep at night. Put your phone away at least an hour before you go to bed. If you need a substitute to keep you entertained at night, try reading a book, or a newspaper. 2. Plan your time An overwhelming schedule can be tackled with some good ol’ time management skills and planning. Make a list of everything you have to do and how long it will take you to do it. Remember to incorporate at least 8 hours of sleep into this schedule, even if that means not checking something off the list. Sleep needs to come first. 3. Exercise Regularly Studies have shown that exercising is a great natural method of eradicating sleep deprivation. There is plenty of ways to quickly add exercise into your daily routine and it will be much easier to fall asleep at night. But be careful, it is recommended to finish your physical activity no earlier than three hours before your bedtime!
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