ro sleep deprivation in teens

SLEEP DEPRIVATION IN TEENS

ALINA CHIRACUSECONDARY SPECIAL SCHOOL NO. 2, BUCHAREST

FACTS ABOUT SLEEP

• It may seem obvious that sleep is beneficial. Even without fully grasping what sleep does for us, we know that going without sleep for too long makes us feel terrible, and that getting a good night's sleep can make us feel ready to take on the world.

• In their studies, scientists have discovered that sleep plays a critical role in immune function, metabolism, memory, learning, and other vital functions.

WHY DO WE SLEEP?

• Our bodies regulate sleep in the same way that they regulate eating, drinking, and breathing.

• They were developed several theories to explain why we spend a third of our lives sleeping.

• Both eating and sleeping are regulated by powerful internal drives. Going without food produces the uncomfortable sensation of hunger, while going without sleep makes us feel overwhelmingly sleepy. And just as eating relieves hunger and ensures that we obtain the nutrients we need, sleeping relieves sleepiness and ensures that we obtain the sleep we need.

• Still, the question remains: Why do we need sleep at all? Is there a single primary function of sleep, or does sleep serve many functions?

INACTIVITY THEORY

• One of the earliest theories of sleep, sometimes called the adaptive or evolutionary theory, suggests that inactivity at night is an adaptation that served a survival function by keeping organisms out of harm’s way at times when they would be particularly vulnerable.

• The theory suggests that animals that were able to stay still and quiet during these periods of vulnerability had an advantage over other animals that remained active. These animals did not have accidents during activities in the dark, for example, and were not killed by predators.

• Through natural selection, this behavioral strategy presumably evolved to become what we now recognize as sleep.

ENERGY CONSERVATION THEORY

• The energy conservation theory suggests that the primary function of sleep is to reduce an individual’s energy demand and expenditure during part of the day or night, especially at times when it is least efficient to search for food.

• Research has shown that energy metabolism is significantly reduced during sleep (by as much as 10 percent in humans and even more in other species).

• For example, both body temperature and caloric demand decrease during sleep, as compared to wakefulness.

RESTORATIVE THEORIES

• The sleep serves to "restore" what is lost in the body while we are awake. Sleep provides an opportunity for the body to repair and rejuvenate itself.

• The most striking finding is that animals deprived entirely of sleep lose all immune function and die in just a matter of weeks. This is further supported by findings that many of the major restorative functions in the body like muscle growth, tissue repair, protein synthesis, and growth hormone release occur mostly, or in some cases only, during sleep.

RESTORATIVE THEORIES

• While we are awake, neurons in the brain produce adenosine, a by-product of the cells' activities. The build-up of adenosine in the brain is thought to be one factor that leads to our perception of being tired. (Incidentally, this feeling is counteracted by the use of caffeine, which blocks the actions of adenosine in the brain and keeps us alert.) Scientists think that this build-up of adenosine during wakefulness may promote the "drive to sleep." As long as we are awake, adenosine accumulates and remains high. During sleep, the body has a chance to clear adenosine from the system, and, as a result, we feel more alert when we wake.

BRAIN PLASTICITY THEORY

• Sleep is correlated to changes in the structure and organization of the brain. This phenomenon, known as brain plasticity, is not entirely understood, but its connection to sleep has several critical implications.

• Sleep plays a critical role in brain development in infants and young children. Infants spend about 13 to 14 hours per day sleeping, and about half of that time is spent in REM sleep, the stage in which most dreams occur.

THE LEARNING PROCESS AND SLEEP

• Research suggests that 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.


• Learning and memory are often described in terms of three functions.

• Acquisition refers to the introduction of new information into the brain.

• Consolidation represents the processes by which a memory becomes stable.

• Recall refers to the ability to access the information (whether consciously or unconsciously) after it has been stored.


• Each of these steps is necessary for proper memory function. Acquisition and recall occur only during wakefulness, but memory consolidation takes place during sleep through the strengthening of the neural connections that form our memories.

• Although there is no consensus about how sleep makes this process possible, many researchers think that specific characteristics of brainwaves during different stages of sleep are associated with the formation of particular types of memory.

SLEEP STAGES AND TYPES OF MEMORY

• REM sleep played an essential role in the acquisition of learned material.

• REM sleep seems to be involved in declarative memory processes if the information is complex and emotionally charged, but probably not if the information is simple and emotionally neutral.

• Slow-wave sleep (SWS), which is deep, restorative sleep, also plays a significant role in declarative memory by processing and consolidating newly acquired information.

SLEEP STAGES AND TYPES OF MEMORY

• Sleep plays a major role in the ability to learn new tasks that require motor coordination and performance.

• Sleep has a role in procedural memory—the remembering "how" to do something (for example, riding a bicycle or playing the piano). REM sleep seems to plays a critical role in the consolidation of procedural memory.

• Other aspects of sleep also play a role: motor learning seems to depend on the amount of lighter stages of sleep, while certain types of visual learning seem to depend on the amount and timing of both deep, slow-wave sleep (SWS) and REM sleep.

THE IMPACT OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION ON LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE

• When we are sleep deprived, our focus, attention, and vigilance drift, making it more difficult to receive information.

• Without adequate sleep and rest, over-worked neurons can no longer function to coordinate information properly, and we lose our ability to access previously learned information.

• In addition, our interpretation of events may be affected. We lose our ability to make sound decisions because we can no longer accurately assess the situation, plan accordingly, and choose the correct behavior. Judgment becomes impaired.

THE IMPACT OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION ON LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE

• Being chronically tired to the point of fatigue or exhaustion means that we are less likely to perform well. Neurons do not fire optimally, muscles are not rested, and the body’s organ systems are not synchronized. Lapses in focus from sleep deprivation can even result in accidents or injury.

• Low-quality sleep and sleep deprivation also negatively impact mood, which has consequences for learning. Alterations in mood affect our ability to acquire new information and subsequently to remember that information.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• More than 87% of high-school students get far less than the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep per night, and the amount of time they sleep is decreasing.

• Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood teens will suffer a lot of negative consequences, including an inability to concentrate, poor grades, drowsy-driving incidents, anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide and even suicide attempts.

• Because of sleep deprivation nobody performs at the level they could perform, whether it’s in school, on the roadways, on the sport fields or in terms of physical and emotional health.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• Social and cultural factors, as well as the advent of technology, all have collided with the biology of the adolescent to prevent teens from getting enough rest.

• It’s been established that teens have a biologic tendency to go to sleep later. Yet when they enter their high school years, they find themselves at schools that typically start the day at a relatively early hour, so their time for sleep is compressed, and many are jolted out of bed before they are physically or mentally ready.

• In the process, they not only loses precious hours of rest, but their natural rhythm is disrupted, as they are being robbed of the dream-rich, REM stage of sleep, the most productive sleep time.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• The researchers noticed that as the kids got older, they are naturally inclined to go to bed later, experiencing a so-called sleep-phase delay.

• Their circadian rhythm – their internal biological clock – shifts to a later time, making it more difficult for them to fall asleep before 23.00.

• Among older teens, the push to fall asleep builds more slowly during the day, signaling them to be more alert in the evening. It is as if the brain is giving them permission, or making it easier, to stay awake longer.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• While teens are biologically programmed to stay up late, many social and cultural forces further limit their time for sleep. The pressure on teens to succeed is intense, and they must compete with a growing number of peers for college slots that have largely remained constant.

• In high-achieving communities this translates into students who are overwhelmed by additional homework, outside activities such as sports or social services projects, as well as peer, parental and community pressures to excel.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• Today’s teens are maturing in an era of ubiquitous electronic media, and they are fervent participants. Some 92 percent of U.S. teens have smartphones, and 24 percent report being online “constantly.” Teens have access to multiple electronic devices they use simultaneously, often at night.

• Some 72 percent bring cellphones into their bedrooms and use them when they are trying to go to sleep, and 28 percent leave their phones on while sleeping, only to be awakened at night by texts, calls or emails.

• In addition, some 64 percent use electronic music devices, 60 percent use laptops and 23 percent play video games in the hour before they went to sleep.

• The problem of sleep-phase delay is exacerbated when teens are exposed late at night to lit screens, which send a message via the retina to the portion of the brain that controls the body’s circadian clock.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• Adolescents are also entering a period in which they are striving for autonomy and want to make their own decisions, including when to go to sleep.

• But studies suggest adolescents do better in terms of mood and fatigue levels if parents set the bedtime — and choose a time that is realistic for the child’s needs. In families where parents set the time for sleep, the teens are happier and in a better-rested state. This may be a sign of an organized family life, not simply a matter of bedtime.

• On the other hand, the growing child and growing teens still benefit from someone who will help set the structure for their lives, because they aren’t good yet at making proper decisions.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• They say they are tired, but they don’t realize they are actually sleep-deprived. And if you ask kids to remove an activity, they would rather not. They would rather give up sleep than an activity.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• Regardless of where they live, most teens follow a pattern of sleeping less during the week and sleeping in on the weekends to compensate.

• But many accumulate such a backlog of sleep debt that they don’t sufficiently recover on the weekend and still wake up fatigued when Monday comes around.

• Moreover, the shifting sleep patterns on the weekend — late nights with friends, followed by late mornings in bed — are out of sync with their weekday rhythm, creating a so-called social jet lag.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• This disrupted rhythm, as well as the shortage of sleep, can have far-reaching effects on adolescent health and well-being.

• It certainly plays into learning and memory. It plays into appetite and metabolism and weight gain. It plays into mood and emotion, which are already heightened at that age. It also plays into risk behaviors — taking risks while driving, taking risks with substances, taking risks maybe with sexual activity.

• Many studies show students who sleep less suffer academically, as chronic sleep loss impairs the ability to remember, concentrate, think abstractly and solve problems.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

• Sleep is believed to reinforce learning and memory, with studies showing that people perform better on mental tasks when they are well-rested.

• When teens sleep, the brain is going through processes of consolidation — learning of experiences or making memories. It’s like the brain is filtering itself — consolidating the important things and filtering out those unimportant things.

• When the brain is deprived of that opportunity, cognitive function suffers, along with the capacity to learn. It impacts academic performance. It’s harder to take tests and answer questions if you are sleep-deprived.

FIVE SCARY HEALTH EFFECTS OF SLEEP DEPRIVATION DURING THE TEEN YEARS

1. Mental health issues

• A study of nearly 28,000 suburban high school students, published earlier this year in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, found that each hour of lost sleep is associated with a 38 percent increased risk of feeling sad or hopeless and a 58 percent increase in suicide attempts.

• Teens who sleep an average of six hours per night are also three times more likely to suffer from depression.


2. Issues with learning and behavior

• Roughly one in four teens goes to bed after 23.00 on weeknights, and those who do tend to perform worse at school and experience greater emotional distress.

• Younger teens who don’t get enough sleep are also more likely to be inattentive, impulsive, hyperactive and oppositional. It should come as no surprise that teens who aren’t getting enough sleep won’t be at their best academically or behavior-wise.


3. Substance use and abuse

The relationship between sleep loss and substance abuse in teens is a two-way street, with sleep deprivation increasing the risk of drug use and dependence, and drug use in turn fueling sleep troubles.

One study found that for every 10 minutes later that a teenager went to bed, there was a 6 percent increase in the chance they’d used alcohol or marijuana in the past month, while other research showed that sleep difficulties predicted substance-related issues like binge-drinking, drinking and driving, and risky sexual behavior.


4. 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 teens. High school students who skimp on sleep may be at a higher risk of diabetes and obesity in adulthood, and among teens who are already obese, not getting enough sleep can increase the risk of later developing diabetes. Among teens already suffering from diabetes, losing sleep can exacerbate their health issues.


5. Dependence on sleep and anxiety medications

While prescription sleep aids aren’t approved for use among people under the age of 18, many teens are being prescribed medication for sleep, the long-term effects of which are still largely unknown. But one short-term effect to be aware of is the risk of prescription pill abuse. A study last year found that teens who are prescribed sleeping pills or anxiety medication, which can be highly habit-forming, are 12 times more likely to abuse those medications than teens without a prescription.

HOW TO HELP TEENAGERS GET MORE SLEEP

• It's not easy, but parents still have the power to encourage good habits.

• From the time they hit puberty until the age of 22, adolescents need about 9 hours of sleep a night to function optimally — to be physically, mentally and cognitively healthy. Tell this to nine out of ten teenagers (or their parents for that matter) and they will laugh.

• What teenager has time to sleep for 9 hours a night during the school year? Very few.


• It takes commitment

Teens aren’t likely to change habits unless they recognize more sleep makes them feel better. It’s one thing to enforce bedtime for a younger child—though that can be a tough and prolonged battle, too. But when it comes to adolescents, it’s trickier. Teens aren’t likely to change their sleep habits unless they recognize that more sleep will make them feel better and improve their performance in school. And both teens and parents have to be willing to put in the effort. It’s hard, but parents need to show that it’s important, and talk it out.


• Parents are important, no matter what kids say

There’s pretty good evidence that parental help with limit-setting around bedtimes and study times and media is helpful. It’s hard to jump in with teens if you haven’t started when the child is younger, but despite adolescents’ expectations of autonomy, parental influence and expectations really do help kids make better decisions about managing their time.


• Be consistent

Consistency is really, really crucial in terms of building healthy sleep habits. That means it’s important for teens to go to bed as close as possible to the same time every night, and get as close to 8 hours of sleep as possible. But it’s also important for him to stick to the same schedule—within reason—on the weekends. If a kid’s sleep schedule shifts dramatically on the weekends—staying up most of the night and sleeping until midafternoon Saturday and Sunday—the chances of getting back to normal Sunday night are slim. It’s not easy for kids to resist—no one wants to be the first to leave the party—but the academic, athletic, and social demands of the week have no time for the weekend.


• Screens off an hour before bed

Most clinicians emphasize the importance of turning off all electronic devices a minimum of an hour before the time young people are trying to go to sleep. And it’s more than just excitement. Electronic screens emit a glow called “blue light” at a particular frequency that sends a signal to the brain which suppresses the production of melatonin and keeps kids from feeling tired. Specialists suggest planning ahead so that homework that needs to be done on a screen is completed by early evening and “off-screen” work is saved for later at night. That also means no “unwinding” by going on Facebook or YouTube. What’s more, social media is a great place to find new sources of anxiety. Good luck getting to sleep if you’ve just read something socially stressful from your best frenemy. The family can help by altering the home environment. It can be useful to start gradually dimming lights around the house to signal when it’s time to quiet down and start moving towards sleep.


• Watch the snacking

Adolescents, many of whom control over their diet for the first time, are prone to eating and drinking on an ersatz schedule, as a means to self-regulate, or to stay awake, or just because they can. But the bag of chips, or the cookies at 1.00, or caffeine any time after dinner—whether or not they help get the essay written—can postpone sleep, and harmfully.


• Boost the biological clock

One of the most significant physiological changes to occur in adolescence is a shift in the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Effectively, teens are living in a different time zone than the rest of us. But that became the normal circadian rhythm for 15-22 year-olds. Clinicians frequently recommend that teens who have trouble sleeping try taking a low dose (2-3 mg) of melatonin (a non-prescription vitamin which can be purchased at the drugstore) one to two hours before it’s time to go to bed to help jumpstart melatonin production.


• Simplify

“Overscheduling” and the pressure to build a college resume have pushed many teens beyond what they can reasonably accomplish in the space of a day or a week. The family really is the core. They have to help the child understand that he can’t do a hundred percent of everything. Kids need parents to help them set realistic expectations for their time, and their support and acceptance when approaching the college process.


• Set a good example as a parent

Parents need to model good sleep habits for their teens. Staying up all night with the kid to edit his paper or pulling an all-nighter for work himself isn’t really sending the right message. Parents who make sleep a priority for themselves show their kids that it’s part of living a healthy lifestyle—like eating right and exercising regularly.


• Streamline mornings

While there’s not much you can do about your school’s start time, teens should organize their mornings so that they can sleep in “as long as is humanly possible. Consider showering, picking out clothes and packing up books before bed so they don’t have to spend time doing it in the morning. Ask mom or dad to make you an egg sandwich to eat on the bus. Whatever it takes to squeeze in as much sleep as possible and arrive one minute before school starts.


• The bed is for sleep

Experts agree that it’s easier to fall asleep and stay asleep if you associate the bed with sleeping. That means working in another room you associate with getting work done might get you to the finish line faster, as well as allowing you to shift gears when it’s time for sleep.

Cutting down on distractions also gets one closer to potential sleep time. Kids shouldn’t be logged onto chat while they do their chemistry homework. Amazingly, the phone might be a better way to collaborate on homework projects—more direct, less time to dither and chat, more time to get things done.

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