Noreen's
PERSONAL BLOG & JOURNAL

         Staying up late to binge-watch a whole season of your favorite series or to finish a project due the next day – these may intrude your ability to get sufficient and quality sleep. Trading sleep for more work or fun may seem normal for some, but when you lack sleep night after night, it becomes a problem. Sleep deprivation is a chronic or acute condition of not having enough sleep. This disorder affects the brain and other cognitive functions which can cause fatigue, sleepiness, weight change, depression, and anxiety. It happens in every age group – from infants, to teenagers, and the elderly. But then again, each individual should take this into serious consideration as the amount of sleep needed by different individuals vary slightly. In addition, other factors such as being pregnant or having a health condition can also influence the need for more sleep. Teenagers need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep to perform and function well throughout the day, yet most teenagers are sleeping for about seven or eight hours a night on an average. According to a study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 70% of teenagers are not getting the recommended hours of sleep. Researchers found that 68.9% of responders reported having inefficient sleep on an average school night. Teenagers typically stay up late in order to do homework or study for exams, participate in extra-curricular activities, as well as technological factors such as getting distracted and using more time in visiting social media sites rather than sleeping early. It is indeed taken lightly that sleep deprivation has negative effects in the performance of teenagers such as reduced productivity and impaired attention.

       

          Reduced productivity is one of the many consequences and negative effects of sleep deprivation on our lives. Some scientists believe that without rest, our neurons become energy-depleted or polluted from normal cellular activity in which they eventually malfunction. According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, short-term productivity gains from skipping sleep in order to work are quickly washed away by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on one’s mood, ability to focus, and access to higher-level brain functions for days to come. While we are sleeping, our bodies are actually busy tending to our physical and mental health, getting us ready for another day. Getting a sufficient amount of sleep can boost our mood and infuse our body with extra energy. Research shows that sleep-deprived people have a much stronger tendency to classify neutral images, such as pictures of ordinary household objects, as something “negative” whereas people who slept the night before labeled them “neutral”. That is why even minor annoyances can suddenly seem more menacing or unmanageable after skipping or shortening a night of sleep. Some characteristics associated with sleep deprivation such as feeling tired, fatigued, groggy, cranky, unable to concentrate, or being impatient can affect one’s productivity and performance. Having sufficient sleep is necessary to make us more productive in our daily work. In short, more sleep is good for our bodies and brains. Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention make it clear that our collective lack of sleep is dangerous to both our health and our productivity. Reduced productivity caused by lack of sleep may also lead to a higher risk of obesity. Losing sleep can also have a long-term negative effect on a young person’s physical health, with poor sleep quality being linked to diabetes and obesity risk for teenagers. Other studies have found that lack of sleep may affect hormones that tell you when you are full; this causes you to overeat when you are sleepy. Sleeping less than the required amount of sleep may also lead to burnout. Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, depression, detachment, cynicism, and lack of accomplishment including feelings of ineffectiveness. When a person gets enough sleep, there is a mental feeling of well-being, and it shows on that person’s performance and how he/she functions at school. A person who is not sleep deprived is happier, more energetic, and well prepared to tackle on the work set out for the day. Lack of sleep can make a person dull and feel too tired to find more productive ways of doing things. That is why a good sleep will not only prepare a person for a hard day’s work, but also help approach problems smarter and more creatively. Sleep deprivation reduces the quality of performance in terms of innovation, efficiency, and genuine engagement. It has often been linked to procrastination. When an exhausted a person usually puts off work until the last minute, this is because his/her energy levels are low. It means that he/she simply does not feel like doing the work. This can affect one’s productivity and actually make a person procrastinate.  Without sleep, students are less able to concentrate, less able to act definitively, less able to collaborate, and less able to engage in higher mental cognition activities. To sum it up, everybody has to take the relationship between sleep and productivity more seriously.

       

          Another negative effect is having impaired attention which affects a practical skill – decision-making. Research suggests that sufficient sleep helps learning and memory in two distinct ways. First, a sleep deprived person cannot focus attention optimally and, therefore, cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep itself has a role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information. Lack of sleep interferes with your ability to concentrate and learn new things. It gets in the way of your decision-making process and stifles creativity. Scientists believe that sleep is necessary for our nervous systems to work normally. Impaired attention results to zoning out and getting distracted which are both common effects of not getting enough sleep. A sleep deprived individual will have more trouble focusing on the tasks at hand after a disruption, compared with someone who gets sufficient sleep. Teenagers who do not get enough sleep are also more likely to be inattentive, impulsive, hyperactive, and oppositional. On the other hand, teenagers who get proper sleep react to things better and more quickly. Not paying attention or focusing on important lessons and discussions during class may cause a teenager to struggle more with assignments and school in general. Having sufficient sleep will also improve one’s memory. Research suggests that memory consolidation takes place while a person sleeps through the strengthening of the neural connections that form our memories. Getting enough rest is the key for cementing what you have learned during the day. If you are sleep deprived, you have a higher chance of having a poorer working memory, compared with those who are getting an ideal amount of rest. In an experiment on mice, researchers observed new connections between neurons and synapses being created during sleep. The study examined mice’s brains using a microscope to determine the effects of sleep and sleep deprivation. Based on the results, sleeping helps the brain clean its own slate which means you have less on your mind to push the stuff you need to remember out of the way. Sleep also improves the ability to make more accurate split-second decisions by about 4% which will help make better and smarter decisions. Sleep may also help make fewer mistakes since a sleep deprived individual would have a 50% slower response time and a lower accuracy rate on simple tasks than someone who is under the influence of alcohol. It should come as no surprise that teenagers who get sufficient and quality sleep would be at their best, academically or behavior-wise. 

 

           In conclusion, sleep is vital to the human body and one’s well-being. Sleep plays an important role in tissue repair, immune function, and growth, which are all keys to keeping our body free of illness and injury. It is something that everybody needs, but many do not get enough. Teenagers know what it means and what it feels to have insufficient sleep. Teenagers, especially students, underestimate the importance of sleep when they choose to stay up late doing homework or cramming projects rather than getting the required 8 to 10 hours sleep. Little do they realize how sleep deprivation negatively affects the physical, mental, and emotional health of an individual.  Remember that research has shown that a good night of sleep is more beneficial for learning than staying up late cramming. Teenagers tend to have irregular sleep patterns across the week since they typically stay up late during school days and sleep a few extra hours during weekends, which can affect their biological clocks and hurt the quality of their sleep. There are many factors that may hinder us from maintaining a regular sleep schedule – staying up late to study, socializing with friends, and having time for fun. Sleep deprivation hinders our ability to perform complex cognitive tasks like those required on exams and has been linked to lower scores because sleep affects productivity, concentration, memory, and the ability to learn. Sufficient sleep is a normal physiological function that allows worries to subside, organs to renew, and the mind to take a break. It helps a person to be more productive and focused. Lack of sleep is an unrecognized epidemic that could be stopped once we put effort in improving quality of sleep. That is why it is so important to deal with sleep deprivation when it happens. Daily habits and activities may affect the quality of sleep a person has so it is important to maintain healthy habits and promote a better sleep routine. Having sufficient and quality sleep is important for being happy, performing the best in school, and having the energy to deal with daily tasks and challenges so never disregard the power of a good night’s sleep.