Teens need more sleep

Few students are actually getting the recommended nine hours of sleep each night.

According to the National Children’s Hospital Formerly, Adolescents should be getting 9 to 9 ½ hours of sleep each day but day usually get between 7 to 7 ¼ hours. This means they don’t get enough sleep at night and here’s why. In addition to this teenagers are not getting enough sleep because of the shift in sleep schedule. Early high school start times and social and school obligations. As a result, most adolescents are very sleep-deprived. In a random survey of 22 Morton East students, only 3 students reported that they do get 9 to 9 ½ hours of sleep each day.

“It’s really important for teens to get enough sleep to help their brains and bodies. Teens need more sleep because their bodies and minds are growing quickly,” Canada’s pediatricians said, according to Caring for Kids. 

In addition, teenagers need to get more sleep to be healthier, but sometimes they can’t do it on their own that’s why it would be better if parents try and help them by modeling good sleep habits, such as adhering to a regular sleep schedule, cutting back on evening caffeine, and exercising regularly.

“Teens who don’t get enough sleep and are overtired are more likely to struggle in school, have trouble with memory, be involved in car crashes or other accidents, and even feel depressed, which can become a serious medical condition,” pediatrician Michael Crocetti said, according to Johns Hopkins.

About 1 in 10 car crashes are due to drowsy driving, and young drivers, people between the ages of 16-25, account for more than 50 percent of them.

“Ay algunos adolecentes que no se duermen temprano por tanta tarea que tiene, actividades que tienen despues de la escuela o tal vez porque tienen un part-time despues de clases pero tambien ay algunos adolecentes que nomas no se duermen temprano por estar toda la noche en el telefono, viendo televion o jugando video juegos,” Morton East parent Ruben Franco said.

Although many teenagers have a very busy life and they stay up really late to work on school assignments or maybe because they have work, other teenagers just stay up to be on their phones so their basically choosing to have unhealthy life and not sleep.