1.HOW MUCH SLEEP DO TEENAGERS REALLY NEED, AND WHAT ARE THE SHORT AND LONG TERMEFFECTS OF NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP?Prepared for Ms. McQueen By Jane Doe Period 1 May 3, 1999

2. Teachers have observed groggy high school students nodding off in theirclassrooms for centuries. The introspective teacher asks, Is it me, or are my students notgetting the sleep they need? To determine if sleep deprivation is the cause of onesstudents drifting off, the inquisitive teacher must explore two issues. First, how muchsleep do teenagers really need; and second, what are the short and long term effects of notgetting enough sleep? To discover answers to these questions, researchers have beenconducting experiments for the past fifty years. The most relevant results of these yearsof research focus on: symptoms of sleep deprivation mental, physical, and emotional problems caused by inadequate amounts of sleep accidents and disasters that can be linked to sleep deficits, and methods for effectively altering poor sleeping habits and insomnia.SYMPTOMS Ninety percent of the public can determine their sleeping needs from thefollowing chart: Newborns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-18 hours/day 4 year olds . . . . . . . . . .. 10-12 hours/day 10 year olds 9-10 hours/day 13-18 year olds7 hours/day 20-70 year olds7 hours/day People over 706-6 hours/day (Dotto 1990:38) 3. However, ten percent of the public are short sleepers or long sleepers and can beperfectly healthy with much more or much less sleep. To determine if you are one ofthese people who have substantially different sleep needs than the rest of the public, askyourself how you feel when you wake up during the day. If you generally feel rested andready to tackle whatever comes you way, you are getting an appropriate amount of sleep. On the other hand, according to Dr. Maas who wrote the book Power Sleep, ifthree or more of the following sentences describe you, there is a good chance you aresuffering from sleep deprivation. I need an alarm clock to wake up.Its a struggle for me to get out of bed in the morning.I feel tired, irritable, and stressed out during the week.I have trouble concentrating.I have trouble remembering things.I feel slow at critical thinking, problem solving, and being creative.I often fall asleep watching TV.I find it hard to stay awake in boring meetings or lectures or warm rooms.I often nod off after heavy meals or after a low dose of alcohol.I often feel drowsy while driving.I often sleep extra hours on weekend mornings.I often need a nap to get through the day.I often have dark circles under my eyes.Ive been drinking more coffee than usual.Im catching more colds or keeping colds longer than I usually do.I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.(How to Tell 1998:12) Some people might want to argue over whether the above sentences truly indicatea sleep deprivation problem. For example, many people believe it is totallyunderstandable that a person would fall asleep at a boring meeting. But according to Dr.Maas, the finger of blame is being pointed in the wrong direction. If you have hadadequate sleep, you might get fidgety or angry or bored or restless or uncomfortable, butnot sleepy (How to Tell 1998:12). Likewise, again according to Dr. Maas, 4. Bragging that you fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow does notnecessarily show that you are in good health . . . . The well-rested persontakes 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep. Think how ridiculous it would soundto brag about being a good eater because you devour your meals the instantthey are put in front of you. Such behavior would be indicative of food de-privation, not good nutrition (How to Tell 1998:12). EFFECTS So suppose you or someone you know is not getting enough sleep. Whats the bigdeal? Are the effects of sleep deprivation terribly significant? Yes, especially whenadded together. Among the possible effects mentioned in research literature are a loss ofmotivation (an I-just-dont-care-attitude); additional depression, feelings of inferiority,anxiety, and irritability; difficulty concentrating and forgetfulness; a loss of spontaneity,flexibility, and originality (since a tired mind will stick to known ways of doing things);lower exam scores (especially on essay exams and math exams); delusions and inaccurateperceptions of reality; weight gain (since people tend to munch on food at randomintervals to keep themselves awake) or weight loss (since the body needs more energy toget through each day); longer and more frequent illnesses; premature aging; temporaryparalysis; and even earlier death (Dotto 1990:155-157). If you have doubts about some of the items on the above list, consider thefollowing bits of evidence. Typical comments by sleep-deprived shift workers include: I used to hunt, fish, and enjoy sport activities. I lost interest in everything . . . I could see such a difference in my friends at work. People would go to the break area, and no one would talk to each other; and if they did, it was something negative about their work (Dotto 1990:237). 5. Teenagers often want to stay up late for fun or to cram the night before amajor exam, but several studies reveal that students with higher GPAs go tobed earlier and wake up earlier on weekdays and weekends than students withlower GPAs (Link). In fact, even staying up for as little as 2 hours past theirnormal bedtime could seriously affect how well they retain the informationlearned that day (Dotto 1990:160). Sleep-deprived doctors have exhibited irritability, cynicism, and chronicanger (Dotto 1990:283). In addition, studies of sleep-deprived interns showdeficiencies in their mathematical skills, their ability to recognize abnormalheart rhythms, and other difficulties with thinking, short-term memory, andmood (Dotto 1990:282). Illnesses and aging increase with sleep deprivation because your body is toobusy coping with other problems to fight off disease (Kazi); and also, one ofthe major functions of sleep is to allow chemicals within the body to repaircell damage and ward off infectious diseases (Uddin). Night workers may also experience a kind of sleep paralysis in which theirmuscles become so rigid that they literally cannot move; in fact, it takes a lotof effort for other people to move them. . . About 12% of nurses and 16% oftraffic controllers said they had experienced this condition (Dotto 1990:233). Finally, a study done by the American Cancer Society found men who sleptabout 4 hours a night were 10 times more likely to have died . . . than thosewho had slept between 7 and 8 hours a night and even people whose sleep 6. was only slightly off the average . . . had higher death rates (Dotto 1990:133).ACCIDENTS AND DISASTERS The personal damage to individuals who do not get enough sleep is high. But farworse is the harm they inflict on many other innocent people. Courts have now attributednuclear accidents like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island (Dotto 1990:18), space shuttleaccidents like the U.S. Challenger accident (Dotto 1990:246), airline accidents (Dotto1990:17), car accidents (Dotto 1990:18), disastrous government decisions (Dotto1990:276), and doctor-caused deaths (Dotto 1990:17) to sleep-deprivation. With regardsto car accidents alone, it is estimated that 13% of the annual total is caused by peoplefalling asleep at the wheel (Dotto 1990:74). Considering the cost in dollars and lives ofall these accidents, all people should try to get an appropriate amount of sleep. If they areunwilling to do it for themselves, they should do it for innocent others.ALTERING SLEEP HABITS Some people will complain its impossible for them to go to sleep earlier becausewhen they try to they just lie in bed awake. But according to Mortimer Mamelak,director of the Sleep Disorders Centre at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, strange sleephabits are just thathabits that can be altered if the person needs to or wants to.Perseverance is necessary to defeat poor sleep habits, but it can be done, especially ifyou cut down on caffeine, smoking, chocolate, and alcohol (Dotto 1990:74). Whyalcohol? Even in moderate doses alcohol can cause rebound insomnia, in which youfall asleep easily but wake up a short time later and lie awake (Are You GettingEnough Sleep?). 7. CONCLUSION Most teenagers need 7 to 7 hours of sleep a night. Getting less than that willhurt their grades, their moods, and their health, and may also hurt innocent people aroundthem. To give themselves a better chance at success and to be socially responsible, allpeople need to carefully evaluate if they are sleep-deprived. If the answer is yes, sleephabits should be changed. Dont just continue to nod off in class or consume record-breaking amounts of caffeine. Instead enjoy the restorative properties of a nice, long,dream-filled night of sleep. 8. BIBLIOGRAPHY Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Health Beat. http://www.hslib.washington.edu/your_health/ hbeat/hb960305.html (31 Mar. 1999).Dotto, Lydia. Losing Sleep: How Your Sleeping Habits Affect Your Life. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1990.Gayman, Tara. Sleep Deprivation. http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/85-102/student_work/gayman.html (31 Mar. 1999).Gorman, Christine. Get Some Sleep. Time. 29 Mar. 1999: 225.How to Tell If Youre Not Getting Enough Sleep. Jet. 2 Mar. 1998: 12.Kazi, Zaheer. Sleep Deprivation. http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~zkazi/sleepdep.html (31 Mar. 1999).Lamberg, Lynne. Knitting Up the Raveled Sleave of Care: Role of Sleep and Effects of Its Lack Examined. Journal of the American Medical Association. 16 Oct. 1996: 1205-1207.Link, Stacie C. and Ancoli-Israel, Sonia. Sleep and the Teenager. http://bisleep.medsch.ucla.edu/WFSRS/abstracts/htdocs/ab100.html (31 Mar. 1999).Sleep Deprivation. http://www.kron.com/nc4/healthbeat/stories/sleep.html (31 Mar. 1999).Sleep Disorders. http://www.mhsource.com/hy/sleep.html (31 Mar. 1999).Uddin, Saeed. Dont Let the Bed Bugs Bite. The Daily Northwestern. http://www.simpson.edu/~thesimp/archives/091296/bed.html (31 Mar. 1999). 9. SELF-EVALUATION 1. What was easy about doing this project? The reading was easy because I was genuinely interested in my research question.2. What was difficult about doing this project? Finding the time to do the research and type up the paper was the toughest part since, in addition to teaching during the day and at night, I am taking a graduate course, and I am a single mother.3. Were the sources you used adequate for thoroughly answering your research question? They were okay. But I would have liked to find more books and less Internet articles produced by college students.4. How do you think you could have improved your paper or presentation? I wish I could have used a more sophisticated computer and a color printer, and I would have liked to have found a few more sources.5. What things would you do differently next time during the research phase of a project such as this? I would use a periodical search service that has more full texts available, and I would use less Internet sources since the validity of some of those sources is questionable.