Interview Transcript

Q: Please state your name and position at the hospital.

A: So - sorry. Do you want me to look there or look at you? Ok.

I’m Grace Paul. I’m one of the pulmonary sleep medicine
physicians at Nationwide and I’m an assistant professor of
pediatrics.

Q: We just want to know a little bit about how sleep deprivation

can affect teens?

A: So sleep is actually very very important. So, you know, I used

to be a poor sleeper and I always thought you could function very
well even with limited sleep, but then I understood by studying
actually the physiology of sleep how important it is to know all the
things that happen when you, sleep how you brain restores normal
functions, physiology, everything. Learning that has made me
understand how important it is to get a good duration of sleep so
that you are able to function well and do well in your day to day
life activities and how it affects your overall health.

Q: Can you kind of talk about what different aspects of health it

affects?

A: Especially in teenagers, well recently the American Academy of

Sleep Medicine had a consensus statement, which they published
in 2016. So they revealed about 800 research articles and a lot of
physicians from sleep medicine, they gathered together and made
this consensus statement and by each age they divided. So for
teenagers, around 13-18 years of age, so at least 8-10 hours of
sleep per day is needed. So how it affects them is one, it is very
very important physiologically, like normal cardiac functioning,
your brain function, how your hormones are regulated within the
body. So organically, it really helps. And it also prevents diabetes
and hypertension. These diseases used to occur in older people, but
now it is starting to come in to younger populations more and
more. Part of it is because of poor hormone regulation and changes
in how your heart functions. It’s related to poor sleep. The other
aspect is your physiological health, your behavioral health. In
school, it affects your attention in the morning and your ability to
perform well in tests. So there are some studies where they check
for something called psychomotor. So how fast you are able to
react to a stimulus. So for example they put some lights and you’re
supposed to see flashes, like a number appearing. And how fast
you identify- actually they have compared students who do not
have good sleep and those who do have good duration sleep and
there is a huge difference in how you react. So your reaction time
is very important when it comes to driving to prevent accidents. So
it affects your organic health, it affects your psychological health,
and it affects your reaction time to prevent time to yourself and
others. So in those ways, a good duration of sleep is important.

Q: Can you talk about how phone usage can affect how you get
sleep?

A: Right now, one of the reasons why our sleep duration is lower is
we tend to keep looking at Facebook and all the social media late
into night. The second thing is every time there is a ping you want
to wake up and look at it. So one, your sleep is very fragmented so
your quality of sleep is poor and second, the light that is- when
you’re exposed to the light, you are waking up. Your brain is
waking up. So you do not go in to the deep stages of sleep which is
very important for normal restoration of your brain. Your brain
needs to rest because every- there’s so much action that’s going on
and it sort of prepares you for the next day. So looking at your
phone in the middle of the night is a problem, yeah.

Q: What are some of the benefits of getting a good night of sleep?

A: So, one, for a teenager, is school performance, which is very
important. So, your attention is going to improve, focusing in class,
your grades are going to improve, and the quality of your work
will improve. Also, you tend to have a better mood so it helps your
social circles. As I mentioned, it helps medically, by preventing
disease processes. And also physically, by preventing harm.

Q: What are some common symptoms of sleep deprivation?

A: First is just, not even able to wake up in the morning. The

parents have to pull them out of bed, I mean all of us have been
through that. So difficulty waking up in the morning, sleeping on
the way to school, not doing to well in the first two hours of class.
After those two hours, your brain tends to wake up and you’re
okay. Sometimes every tired in the afternoon and sleeping on the
way home from school. Waking up with headaches because you
didn’t get enough sleep, lack of motivation, not wanting to
participate in extra-curricular activities, you just want to be by
yourself, it sort of isolates you. Which is not good for your social
life and also your mood.