Sleepless and Irritable Essay -- Teenagers, Adolesence, Sleeping Habits

Many studies have been done on how many hours of sleep teens need and how lack of sleep can affect their lives. Sleep has an impact on teens and their concentration, their mood and the way they function doing things in day to day living. Studies show that teens should sleep 8 to 10 hours a night however; many are not getting the recommended amount of sleep to help them (The Science Of Sleep." 60 Minutes. Narr. Lesley Stahl. Prod. Shari Finkelstein. CBS. 16 Mar 2008). A lot of teenagers stay up late without realizing the consequences and how it can affect their lives. One of the biggest consequences of teens lack of sleep is when it comes to driving, being tired make teens less alert and is a main reason for teen accidents. (National Sleep Foundation. Detection and Prevention: Drowsy driving. Retrieved July 31, 2009). The 8 to 10 hours that are needed for proper function is very hard for teens to get because they have many tasks to keep up with from school, sports, part time jobs, friends to family life. Other activities that keep them occupied are texting, playing online games and internet addiction with sites such as Facebook. These things cause teenagers to stay up very late or they are kept awake the whole night trying to catch up with all the demands they couldn’t fit into their regular day. All this combined creates sleeping disorders in teens and causes health problems. Almost everyone knows in order to be healthy and fit sufficient sleep is required. Parents need to take care to watch over their teens and help them create a good sleep pattern it is proven that teens that have a good relationship with their parents have better sleeping habits. Parents think teens know how much sleep they need and will just go to sleep w... ...tant especially for a tee Works Cited "Insomnia - Sleep Disorders - Sleep Center." Stanford Hospital & Clinics - Stanford Medicine. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. NIH Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. "Sleep deprivation." Better Health Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. "Sleep Hygiene  « Princeton University Health Services." Princeton University - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013. The Science Of Sleep." 60 Minutes. Narr. Lesley Stahl. Prod. Shari Finkelstein. CBS. 16 Mar 2008. CBSNews. CBS Interactive. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. National Sleep Foundation. Detection and Prevention: Drowsy driving. Retrieved July 31, 2009. â€Å"Teens Who Feel Supported At Home And School Sleep Better† By Patti Neighmond. December 05, 2013 â€Å"TEEN SLEEP PROBLEMS LEAD TO DEPRESSION & DRUG ABUSE† By Byron J. Richards, CCN October 28, 2008 NewsWithViews.com