How much sleep do teens get and what can we do to make it better? How does this correlate to school work?
MY RESEARCH
From Theory to Reality
TRAVEL TIME
Teenagers in high school need to drive to school and depending on the location of the home, they might have to drive an hour or maybe even two hours to go to the school paid that may be the best school available, and they might now want to go to the school near them. This means that they would have to wake up a lot earlier than the school start time, messing up the child's circadian rhythm. Although during the COVID-19 season, kids get the option to stay at home to where they don't have to wake up as early to go to school.
SCHOOL START TIMES
Teenagers are not getting enough sleep. On usnews.com, a woman says that schools should not open up earlier than 8:30 am because teenagers do not get enough sleep. They have to deal with homework and extracurricular activities like sports and stuff outside of school. Also, teenagers have a different circadian rhythm than adults and younger children. They have about a two-hour difference where if you think going to sleep at 11 is a good time, they would feel like going to sleep at one is a good time where you guys think the same. This is one reason why I believe schools should push back the start time of their day. This would significantly impact their grades because they would get a lot more sleep that matches their circadian rhythm.
MANAGEABLE HOMEWORK LOADS
Teenagers in high school have multiple teachers and many students in their studies describe homework as mind-numbing tedious and even excessive. A national homework expert recommends that whatever grade you're in you should multiply that by 10 to get the number of minutes spent on homework at home. Because I am a sophomore in high school, I would get 100 minutes of reading or one hour and 40 minutes for all my classes. That seems a lot more reasonable than what is going on. I usually have two to three hours of homework and it can be very terrible. Schools should also account for people who have disabilities like ADHD and dyslexia. Students report that on average they get over 3 hours a night on homework. This also links two school start times where kids cannot get home due to extracurricular activities and still have homework to do. This might cause them to go to sleep late and may arrive at school late too.
SLEEP
Whenever school is out for the summer, a significant response from high schoolers is one response: Sleep. Many teenagers catch up on sleep over the summer that they missed out on during the school year. Sleep deprivation is a severe issue for younger children and can alter emotional, behavioral functioning, safety, and learning development. It is recommended that teenagers get 8 to 10 hours of sleep and most probably get 67 hours. The average amount of sleep across the United States reports a moderate amount of 6.8 hours 4 adolescence. More than half the students in usnews.com report are that overhead students report having frequent exhaustion and falling asleep due to stress. Other studies of nationally representative samples of high school students saw that less than 10% of adolescents get nine or more hours of sleep at night which is the guideline for teenagers.
SCREEN TIME
Quite a few students say that social media sites are open on their computer and their phone, and they get incoming texts on Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media. These distractions can make homework take longer than usual and can compromise learning. Smartphones can also disrupt sleep if they are buzzing throughout the night. In one family, the parents confiscate all technological devices after dinner so their children can complete any homework assignments that they have to do before sleep. Some other parents have rules where children have designated spaces to work on homework, so they don't have the distraction of social media or their phones.
SLEEP SCHEDULE
Many teenagers report that some days of school, they might have an hour of homework, while some days they might have up to four. This can alter a teenager's sleep schedule where they should wake up and go to sleep at the same time each day and include time in bed. Sadly homework can be driving cause of messing this up. Another problem is oversleeping on weekends. Many teenagers catch up on sleep over the weekend, which can be helpful but can also negatively affect where tears have a hard time getting back onto a school schedule.
SLEEP DEPRAVATION
Due to a different circadian rhythm, early high school start times, and social and school obligations, maintainers are often very sleep-deprived, impacting a teenager's functionality. Sleep to operation can alter Canadians mood where it can swing from irritable and cranky to hyper. Mediators get frustrated and upset easier. Sleep deprivation can change their behavior, for example, driving fast, drinking, and engaging in other dangerous activities. The main thing you can alter is their cognitive ability. While having less sleep can change attention and memory, and decision-making. This isn't good for teenagers because they should get an average of eight to ten hours of sleep, but more than half earn less than what is needed. Studies show that teenagers who get less sleep or are more apt to get worse grades to have tardiness and absences.
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