Sleep Disorders in Adolescents - Are Schools to Blame?

There is an increasing incidence of ado- lescents experiencing sleep disorders. Experts tell us that teenagers need about nine hours of sleep. Yet, six and a half hours on a school night is actually about the average. Some teenagers get even less. Very often, it is some type of sleep disorder that prevents adolescents from receiving a proper amount of sleep.

Adolescent sleep disorders are thought to be caused by irregular sleeping patterns. Most teens are forced to wake up early to attend school, which conflicts with their natural tendencies to stay up later at night and wake up later. To compensate for this, teens try to catch up on their sleep during the weekends, oftentimes sleeping well into the afternoon. But experts agree that teens need to establish regular sleep patterns in order to avoid adolescent sleep disorders.

Sleep Deprivation Effects

Teens with adolescent sleep disorders are often deprived of sleep, which has many negative effects. Sleep deprivation could hinder both memory and creativity, which in turn could cause issues with learning abilities. Lack of sleep can result in mood swings, stress, and difficulty controlling emotions, depression, and a weakened immune system. A weakened immune system could cause many other long term problems as well.

What Can Be Done to Fix the Problem?

The solution to reducing adolescent sleep disorders is by no means simple. Because studies have shown that teenagers have a natural inclination to sleep late and go to bed late, the best solution would be to change the schedule of when students attend school. Currently, in many school systems throughout the world, high school students attend school, beginning as early as 7:25! This means that many high-schoolers are required to make it to the bus stop by 6:45 or earlier. Middle schoolers begin school next, with elementary schoolers beginning school the latest. But many people have expressed their support for reversing this schedule, allowing the high school students to begin school last.

Unfortunately, these kinds of solutions can raise a host of problems. Bus schedules would have to be rearranged at increased costs. Schedule changes can interfere with extracurricular activities. Today, any teenagers remain at school until 4:00 P.M. already. Leaving academics until the latter part of the day, with so many high school students clubs and sports means they would not arrive home until 7:00 P.M. or later.

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