Sleep Deprivation Among Teenagers and Young Adults
Many people suffer from sleep deprivation. The majority of the time, sleep deprivation is not caused by something within the person, but rather the surrounding activities the person is experiencing. Throughout the years there have been many advances in technology, such as cell phones, televisions, and computers. All of these have negative effects on the brain in relation to sleeping. Other factors that can affect a peaceful night’s sleep are the extracurricular activities, such as sports and part-time jobs, of high school and college students. Despite these factors, there are solutions to fix these problems.
A very small percentage of teenagers report they do not own a cell phone. In a study conducted in Switzerland (Schweizer et al., 2017), approximately 97% of subjects aged 12 to 19-year-old owned a smart phone in 2014. There have not been many studies of the correlation between the use of a cell phone and the lack of sleep (Schweizer et al., 2017). Schweizer et al. (2017) studied two groups of adolescents; one group owned a smart phone and the other group owned a “conventional mobile phone.” The study revealed that the adolescents who owned smart phones did go to bed later, but the sleep times between the two groups remained the same. A limitation of this study was that it was a cross-sectional design. A longitudinal design could possibly yield more information on the possible link between the use of smart phones and sleep deprivation (Schweizer et al., 2017).
To update the study, Schweizer et al. (2017) conducted a study that consisted of a random sample of students from thirty-five different high schools. This random sample was divided into three groups: non-user of a smart phone, user of a smart phone, and a new owner of a smart phone (Schweizer et al., 2017). The purpose of this study was to observe the possible correlation between the use of smart phones and sleep problems. Students were asked to complete a questionnaire stating the hours they slept during the week, weekends, and vacation times. The second question was asking if they had any troubles sleeping within the past six months. The results of the study concluded that owners of smartphones were more likely to get less sleep than their peers not owning a smartphone or just recently acquiring one (Schweizer et al., 2017). Regarding sleep duration of the subjects throughout the first wave of investigation (T0), on school days, owners slept an average of 7.81, non-owners slept about 8.61 hours, and new owners slept around 8.23 hours. On vacations/weekends, owners slept about 9.48 hours while non-owners slept around 10.20 hours. The most statically significant difference was between owners and non-owners on school days during the second wave of investigations (T1); owners slept around 7.28 hours while non-owners slept around 8.0 hours. “Overall, adolescents who owned a smartphone were significantly more likely to have shorter sleep duration than non-owners” (Schweizer et al., 2017, p. 134). The National Sleep Foundation recommends an average sleep duration of 8-10 hours of adolescents between the ages of 14-17. If these adolescents do not get the proper rest they need, their waking mind will suffer the next day due to the exhaustion of their bodies. Even if you sleep just one hour under what you are supposed to, your body will not function to its full potential. To conclude that research, owning a cell phone and using it frequently is associated with short sleep times (Schweizer et al., 2017).
The studies by Schweizer et al. (2017) investigated the relation of sleep duration and cell phone usage. This next study (Preety et al., 2018) looks into what physically happens to a teenage body if he/she does not get the proper amount of sleep due to a smart phone, cell phone, or any electronic device for that matter. According to Preety et al. (2018), the symptoms of sleep deprivation include “yawning, irritability, fatigue, inability to concentrate, moodiness, forgetfulness, lack of motivation, depression, and poor perspective on life” (Preety et al., 2018, p. 1). The reason we are so emotional when we are sleep-deprived is because being tired weakens the prefrontal cortex (which is the reasoning part of our brain) which inhibits it from controlling our emotions normally). This is why someone who is tired is more likely to speak what is on their mind without thinking about what they are saying, while someone who is not sleep deprived is more likely to think before they speak (Preety et al., 2018).
If we do not get the amount of sleep that our bodies need, our bodies do not produce the necessary hormones in order to promote growth and restore our system from the prior day (Preety et al., 2018). Instead of growth hormones, they are replaced with “monoamine neurotransmitters and adrenal cortical steroids” which are stress chemicals that do not do our bodies any good (Preety et al., 2018, p. 1). Sleep is such an important bodily function because it not only restores us and “cleans” our bodies from the previous day, it also prepares us for the next day and makes sure we have the proper hormones in our bodies. This is why losing sleep because of smart phones is dangerous.
In the study by Preety et al. (2018), a questionnaire was administered to ninety random students with thirty-one questions all formulated around their sleep, problems of sleep, and causes of the loss of sleep. The results showed that the average sleep time for all ninety students was around four to six hours. That only satisfies around 58% of sleep time needed for a human of that age to properly function. The most common reason of such loss of sleep was extended time on their smart phones and doing school work. Additionally, 23% of the subjects say they only use their phone before bed to relieve stress and anxiety, which eventually will lead to procrastination. The effects of sleep deprivation include stress and anxiety, so these students who are using their smart phones late at night (which causes sleep deprivation) are basically caught it a cycle of exhaustion. Another effect of sleep deprivation is the increased risk of diabetes. “Sleep restriction is also associated with an impairment of carbohydrate tolerance, similar to that observed in individuals with clinically significant impaired glucose tolerance” (Preety et al., 2018, p. 3).
One way to assess stress levels and lack of sleep is by measuring the enzymes located in salivary alpha amylase (sAA) (Prahdan & Sinha, 2018). SAA is a great biomarker because it takes accurate measurements of the enzymes and it is also a “subject friendly” method, meaning it is not uncomfortable for the patient (Prahdan & Sinha, 2018). SAA monitors the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. It is believed that when you are in stressful or uncomfortable situations, the sympathetic nervous system activity increases, which in turn, causes higher levels of salivary alpha amylase in the saliva. Patients with insomnia and sleep apnea were recorded with higher levels of sAA (Prahdan & Sinha, 2018). This method of measuring lack of sleep has been extremely helpful in the medical world.
Sleep is not only good for wakefulness throughout the day, but it also helps your metabolism, helps your memory, fights off infection, and most importantly boosts performance in school (Carter et al., 2016). The amount of high school and college students who do not get a good night’s rest due to extracurricular activities and school work is almost unacceptable. Lack of sleep can affect a student’s mood, academic performance, ability to learn vital day-to-day information, and also causes a spike in vehicular accidents. College students are the most sleep deprived humans in the United States (Carter et al., 2016). The reasons for such lack of sleep are classes, part time jobs, and social lives. Most college students categorize sleep as a low priority activity since they do not have much time for it on top of their academic and social lives (Carter et al., 2016).
The National Sleep Foundation says that every college student needs at least 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep every night (Carter et al., 2016). The problem is that the average college student only gets around 6 hours of sleep which hinders their learning and functioning skills. Getting the proper amount of sleep each night boosts the students’ functioning capability. College students experience “frequent night waking, short sleep time, long sleep latencies, and a disrupted circadian rhythm due to later bedtimes and wake times on the weekends than weekdays” (Carter et al., 2016, p. 316). Sleep deprivation among college students is linked to a poor GPA, binge drinking and/ or drug use, and depression. Students have a poor GPA because their brains do not have the capability to process and retain important information when they are not getting enough sleep. Binge drinking is linked to sleep deprivation because students think that drinking or taking drugs will keep them alert so that they can get their work done; all it does is cause anxiety and keep them more awake at night. When a student is sleep deprived, they do not have all of their hormones actively working together, which in turns causes self-hatred and depression. Another contributor to sleep loss among college students is caffeine. Just like alcohol and drugs, students use caffeine as a way of staying awake in order to accomplish more of their work. The down side to this is that they decide to use caffeine late at night and the average caffeine high lasts for about 5.5 to 7.5 hours (Carter et al., 2016, p. 316). This interrupts their circadian rhythm entirely.
While college students are the most sleep deprived, high school students in the United States are on the rise for sleep deprivation. A common factor in sleep deprivation for these students is the early school start times. As stated earlier, the recommended sleep times for young adults are 8.5 to 9.5 hours a night. Only about 14% of students actually reach the required amount of sleep, while 70% struggle to even reach 8 hours (Boergers, 2015). 40% of schools in America start before 8 a.m., while the rest generally start no later than 8 a.m. If all students were to follow the guidelines of the National Sleep Foundation that would mean all students would need to go to bed around 9 p.m. every night (Boergers, 2015).
A solution to this problem would be to match up school start times with the students’ circadian rhythms (Boergers, 2015). The benefits of a later school start time would include: helping students get more sleep, lowering the depressive state of students, help cut out the absences and tardiness, improvement in math and reading scores, improvement of academics over all, and lower the rates of vehicular car crashes (Boergers, 2015, p. 6). A study in Lexington, Kentucky showed that a school whose start time was delayed by just one hour had decreased their rate of car accidents by 16.5% (Boergers, 2015, p. 6).
Most students (especially those in high school) struggle with the amount of work they are required to do. Extracurricular activities, sports, and part time jobs are also factors of sleep deprivation and should be considered in the debate of starting school at later times (Boergers, 2015). The average teenage brain does not start to fully engage until around 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. Schools that start at 8 a.m. or before get the groggy, moody, not quite active brain of the teenagers. Additionally, early start times are correlated with poor GPA (Boergers, 2015).
Overall, losing sleep is a very bad habit. It can affect almost all of your bodily processes. There are ways that sleep deprivation can be avoided. Such ideas are to limit screen time, limit the amount of extracurricular activities, and later school start times. Achieving later school start times is not impossible, in fact, it is very obtainable. The only problem is that many people who are not modern age high school students have to approve it.
References
Boergers, J. (2015). Benefits of later school start times. Brown University Child & Adolescent
Behavior Letter, 31(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbl.30008
Carter, B., Chopak-Foss, J., & Punungwe, F. B. (2016). An analysis of the sleep
quality of undergraduate students. College Student Journal, 50(3), 315-322.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cbl.30008
Pradhan, R. K., & Sinha, N. (2018). Level of alpha amylase activity in human saliva as a non-
invasive biochemical marker of sleep deprivation. Sleep & Biological Rhythms, 16(3), 357-364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-018-0165-7
Preety, R., Devi, R. G., & Priya, A. J. (2018). Sleep deprivation and cell phone usage among
teenagers. Drug Invention Today, 10(10), 2073-2075. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-018-0165-7
Schweizer, A., Barrense-Dias, Y., Akre, C., Berchtold, A., Schweizer, A., & Berchtold, A.
(2017). Adolescents with a smart phone sleep less than their peers. European Journal of Pediatrics, 176(1), 131-136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-016-2823-6
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