The Effects of Lack of Sleep in High School Students Essay
705 Words
3 Pages
Hitting their obnoxious alarm clocks, millions of high school students in the United States wake up at 6:00 am for school every day. Long before the sun rises, students rush through their morning rituals of washing, dressing, and eating. Aside from school, students often have sports, clubs, work, and social time. Once students return home, they begin their homework assignments that take several hours and cause them to sleep late. As a result, high school students who need a minimum of eight to nine hours of sleep barely receive seven. This shortage in sleep often causes several detrimental consequences. However, there is a simple solution to this dilemma. High school classes should start later in the day because the associated lack of
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Lack of sleep not only affects behavior, it also causes changes in physical health. One of the biggest physical impacts caused by less sleep is obesity. “Adolescent’s Sleep Behavior and Perception of Sleep,” discusses how teenagers deprived of sleep are incapable of properly processing ghrelin which increases hunger. Throughout the day, students are physically exhausted, but the ghrelin levels signal calorie intake and fat begins to accumulate. This phenomenon is often associated with stress eating (Noland 227). In most cases, stress eating occurs during finals week when students study for long hours and reduce sleep drastically. Thoughtless behavior causes students to eat unhealthy foods such as energy drinks, sugar, coffee, and fast foods which all contribute to obesity .In the United States, obesity is one of top causes of fatalities. It is also common for obesity to continue throughout the student’s life and eventually lead to heart failure, diabetes and other fatal health problems. Although physical problems may be resolved later on, sleep deprivation has direct consequences on academics due to less memory retention. In 2011, Mathew Kirby conducted a standardized test based on the previous day’s lecture. His results showed that the students who had fewer hours of sleep scored significantly lower (57). The reason behind this is that a human continues to process information throughout the day during sleep, but