Sleep Deprivation in Adolescents

Sleep deprivation, and its effects on the body, have been a burden on society since the beginning of the Information Age. Children and adolescents in specific have been affected by this change. This has lead to widespread health problems and chronic conditions for a wide variety of society's youth. Why has this trend increased in our youth and what ind of effects does it have on our bodies! When evaluating the level of sleep a child or adolescent re"uires, one must ta e into account both sleep "uantity and "uality. #oor sleep "uality is common even in children without any sleep disorders, and about $%& of children suffer from some ind of disorder. Children and adolescents on average have began to sleep late, while school openings have remained the same. This is believed to be due to chronotype' an individual's preferred sleeping schedule. (vening chronotypes are individuals who go to sleep late and preferably wa e up late. )orning chronotypes go to sleep early and wa e up early. Several studies suggest that the presence of evening chronotypes becomes more prominent after puberty. (vening chronotypes also provide several adverse behavioral effects. (vening chronotypes are more li ely to be depressed and suicidal, practice delin"uent behavior, and in general increases negative emotion while decreasing positive. An e*periment was performed to compare the state of morning chronotypes to evening chronotypes. +Table ,- Teens were given an actigraph that non.invasively measured their body's activity and sleep diaries. They then compared the activity of their bodies when in a sleep deprived state /less than 0.% hours1 to a non sleep.deprived state. It showed that

sub2ects who had been sleep deprived had a slow recovery time to their sleeping schedules and could not easily manipulate their sleeping times. (vening chronotypes reported less positive behavior. (ven further, their negative behavior increased when forced to wa e up early, such as for school or sports. (vening chronotypes also have even worse behavior and side effects than morning chronotypes when sleep deprived. The conclusion for this e*periment is for good sleep "uality and "uantity, adolescents must not only get to bed early but ma e sure they sleep until fully rested and undisturbed. Another article includes the actual effects of sleep deprivation. A sleep deprived teen suffers from many adverse effects due to low sleep. These include brief mental lapses3 small almost hypnotic bouts of sleep that can result in motor accidents or other self.in2ury. A tired teen will feel unmotivated and unfocused, and less able to control their behavior. Tedious and long tas s without instant gratification becomes difficult, and complicated tas s ta*es the brain. The brain can no longer easily focus on tas s, at a level even comparable to A454 patients. It goes on to define sleep not simply as a restful state3 but as a complete loss of responsiveness to the world. This is commonly how optimal sleep is confused with simply a restful state. leep itself is an active process Sleep is a process for your entire body and is a delicate process. Sleeping in fragmented naps or inefficient times results in a unrestful slumber. This is particularly important in the maturation of the brain.