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School, homework, friends, sports, clubs, choir, and maybe even jobs. With all this crowded in your brain, all the while trying to fit it in your schedule, how do you find time to sleep? Why do so many teens suffer from sleep deprivation?
Imagine for a moment that you are a teenager again. You have a ton of homework, practice for your favorite sport, choir, or drama tomorrow, your friends want to you to join yet another club, and you haven’t had a good night’s rest in over a month.
Teenagers need nine-and-a-half hours of sleep each night. Most only get seven to seven-and-a- quarter. There are many causes of this, as shown above, but there is one that’s not talked about all that often. This is something you didn’t have to deal with as a teenager--phones.
Now picture this, you’re in your bed trying to get some sleep when your phone buzzes. More texts come from friends, social media is trying to get you to join in and, before you know it, you’ve picked up your phone. More buzzes come and eventually, it’s been an hour. You groan as you realize you have school tomorrow. You finally put your phone down, but can’t seem to fall asleep.
This is because your phone emulates the light that the sun gives off, preventing your brain from creating melatonin, the hormone that helps you sleep. It takes about 2 hours after being on your phone to be able to sleep good.
71% of people take their phones to bed with them. 80% of teens suffer from sleep deprivation, and 43% of this is because of phones. This entails that more than half the cause of sleep deprivation among teens, is due to phones.
It’s true that some people use their phone as an alarm clock, but other than that I don’t see why you need your phone to sleep. Besides that, you could always get an alarm clock. The truth of the matter is, it is a very easily solved problem. You don’t need your phone by you at night. You don’t need it so sleep, in fact it prevents sleep! If you need an alarm clock, buy an alarm clock! They were invented for this reason.
Do you sleep with your phone?
Do you suffer from sleep deprivation?
Could you go without your phone for the night?
How many nights could you go without it?
Do you think this is a problem?
If so, how do you think we can address this problem?