Effects of Sleep Deprivation to the Teenagers

A research paper submitted to:

Celina Sibug

In partial fulfillment of the requirements in English 10

By:

Dennis L. Inday

Grade 10-1
 Significance of the Study

This research paper is significant to the following persons:

1. Teenagers- this study will broaden the knowledge of the Teenagers about the

importance of getting enough sleep everyday as well as the effects of sleep deprivation

to their health.

2. Parents- this study is also dedicated to every parents for them to understand how sleep

schedule is a necessity for a family.

3. Sleep deprived people- this study will serve as a guide to the people that are already

suffering from sleep deprivation but don’t know it yet to know what they should do.
 Statement of the Problem

This paper is sought to answer the following questions:

1.How are the stages of sleep associated with sleep deprivation?

2.What are the 2 kinds of sleep deprivation?

3.Who is the champion non-sleeper?

4.What are the primary factors that affect the sleep of a teenager?

5.What are the effects of sleep deprivation to the teenagers?

 Table of Contents

Chapters Page/s

I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………….1-2

II.The Nature of Sleep…………………………………………………………………3-4

What are the electrophalogram patterns?

Psyciological Variations in sleep

Rapid-eye movement sleep

Non rapid-eye movement sleep

Sequences of NREM and REM sleep

III. How much sleep does an average person needs? ................................................5

Infant to kids

Teenagers

Adults

IV. Sleep Deprivation………………………………………………………………6-7

Selective Sleep Derprivation

General Sleep Deprivation

Animal experimental subject

Human Experimental subject

V. What is Teen Sleep Deprivation?........................................................................7-8

Understanding Teen Sleep

 Sleep Debt

VI. Primary Disturbances…………………………………………………………..8-9

Chronic Insomnia

The pressures not to sleep

Panic Attacks

Some school shifts

VII. Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Teenagers………………………………………9-10

Mental Health issues

Issues with learning and behavior

Substance use and abuse

Higher risk of Obesity

Dependence of sleep and anxiety medications

VIII. The Role of Parents………………………………………………………………10

IX. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….....11

Bibliography
 I.Introduction

Making each day productive is a challenge for many people. It takes practice, disclipine, effort,

and a proper mindset to be a productive person, however, being productive makes a successful

man that finishes a lot of things in a shorter period of time with the best quality of a product,

but what makes a person productive? Is it because of the inspirations from other people,

perhaps the quotes that are floating around the internet like “time is gold”, or maybe the urge to

finish things because of the stacking workloads? , psychologically and technically, these are all

correct but the most important thing that affects a person’s productivity is a good rest. Now,

there’s so many kinds of rest that bossts other people when it comes to doing things, like sleep.

Sleep plays a vital roles in human’s life. It’s as important as eating and breathing—without it

there can be no life but what would happen if one is unable to attain an adequate amount of

sleep especially in their adolescent’s years?

Many things can happen when a person is deprived of sleep but one is for certain and that the

continuous loss of sleep can cause fatal effects to the health of the teenagers, after even one

night without a good sleep, there’s a chance that one could wake up feeling not just fatigued

but also irritable. Furthermore, it also affects the teenagers’ memory, creativity, and judgement.

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 Sleep deprivation is a scary thing to happen to a teenager that shouldn’t just be ignored. The

purpose of this research paper is to give information about how sleep deprivation badly affects

a teenager’s life because of its short-term and long-term effects, and the chance of suffering the

consequences of having chronic insomnia.

Sleep is a complex subject often ignored by many people. This research paper will discuss the

natures of sleep, the purpose of sleeping, why sleep deprivation is most likely to happen to the

teenagers, what are the effects of sleep deprivation to teens, and the role of parents in terms of

the health of the adolescents.

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 II. Natures of Sleep

Sleep is a normal, easily reversible, repeated, impulsive state of decreased and less efficient

responsiveness to external stimuli. Sleep usually requires the presence of flaccid or relaxed

skeletal muscles and the absence of the overt, goal directed behavior of which the waking

organism is capable. The characteristic posture associated with sleep in man and in many

but not all animal is that of horizontal repose. The relaxations of the skeletal muscles in this

posture and its implication of a more passive role toward the environment are symptomatic

of sleep.

Electroencephalogram Patterns

EEG Paterns are the brain patterns of electrical activity as recorded in tracing. It is

commonly used for experimenting people while they are asleep to study their brain patterns

and how it changes through the course of their sleep.

Psychological Variations

Rapid-eye Movement Sleep

Rapid-eye Movement sleep or REM Sleep. It is state of sleep that recurs cyclonically

several times during normal perod of sleep and that is characterized especially by increased

neuronal activity of the forebrain, mid brain, depressed muscle tone, dreaming, and rapid-

eye movement. In this kind of sleep our brain becomes more active than in NREM sleep.

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 Non-rapid Eye Movement Sleep

Non-rapid eye movement sleep or NREM is, collectively, sleep stages 1–3, previously

known as stages 1–4. In stage 1, it is the beginning of the stages in sleep and is considered

as light sleep. In stage 2, we become less aware of our surroundings and our body begins

to produce rhythmic brain activity known as sleep spindles. In stage 3, this stage can be

divided into 3 and 4, in this stage our body become less responsive to the stimulus around

us and it also acts as transitional stage for light sleep to become very deep sleep. There are

distinct electroencephalographic and other characteristics seen in each stage. Unlike REM

sleep, there is usually little or no eye movement during these stages. Dreaming rare during

NREM sleep, and muscles are not paralyzed as in REM sleep. People who do not go

through the sleeping stages properly get stuck in NREM sleep, and because muscles are not

paralyzed a person may be able to sleepwalk.

Sequences of NREM and REM sleep

It is important to realize that sleep does not progress through these stages in sequence. Sleep

begins in stage 1 and progresses into stages 2, and 3. After stage 3 sleep, stage 2 sleep is

repeated before entering REM sleep. Once REM sleep is over, the body usually returns to

stage 2 sleep. Sleep cycles through these stages approximately four or five times throughout

the night.

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 III.How Much Sleep Does and Average Person Needs?

In general, each of us spends up to a third of our lives asleep. This amounts to about 25 years

of slumbering in an average life span. Adults usually need between six and nine hours of sleep

in every 24-hour cycle, but this naturally varies with each individual. In our whole life span,

our need of sleep vary dramatically at different stages of life.

Infant to Toddlers

Babies typically will sleep 14 and 16 hours of sleep every 24 hours, however, as they grow

older, they sleep less but for longer periods of time.

Teenagers

Adolescents are notorious for not getting enough sleep. The average sleep that teenagers get is

7 hours, however, they need to sleep for about 9 to 10 hours of sleep every night to obtain the

best quality of sleep.

Adults

In adults, anything between 6 and 9 hours of sleep as nightly average is not unual, anything

and 7 hours probably best expresses the norm. In addition, elderly people may revert to the

sleep patterns from childhood.

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 IV.Sleep Deprivation

Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep; it can be either chronic

or acute. A chronic sleep-restricted state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness,

clumsiness and weight loss or weight gain. It adversely affects the brain and cognitive

function. However, in a subset of cases sleep deprivation can, paradoxically, lead to

increased energy and alertness and enhanced mood; it has even been used as a

treatment for depression.

Selective Sleep Deprivation

The studies of selective sleep deprivation have confirmed that attribution of need for both stage

4 of NREM and REM sleep, because an increasing number of experimental arousal is required

each night to suppress both stage 4 and REM sleep on successive nights of deprivation, and

because both show clear rebound of effect following deprivation.

General Sleep Deprivation.

In view of several obvious practical considerations, many general sleep deprivation

studies have used animals rather than human beings as experimental subjects. Waking

effects routinely observed in these studies have been of deteriorated physiological

abilities, sometimes including tissue damage.

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 Animal Subject in Sleep Deprivation

Long-term sleep deprivation in the rat, up to 6 to 33 days, accomplished by enforced

locomotion of both experimental and control animals but timed to coincide with any

sleep of the experimental animals, has been shown to result in severe debilition and

death to the experimental animal but not the control animal.

Human Subject in Sleep Deprivation

Among human subjects, the champion non-sleeper was 17-years-old student who

voluntarily undertook 264-hours sleep deprivation experiment. There was no recorded

long-term effect to his health but for the short-term effect the teenager have shown the

signs of blurred speech and vision, irritability, memory lapses, and confusion

concerning his identity.

V. What is Teen Sleep Deprivation?

Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood teens will suffer myriad negative consequences,

including inability to concentrate, get poor grades, face anxiety and depression, have thought

about suicide, and even suicide attempts. Teens sleep deprivation is caused by many factors in

his surrounding disrupting his/her time to sleep. One of this factor is chronic Insomnia.

Understanding Teen Sleep

In teen years, the sleep needs of the adolescents remains the same—roughly nine hours a night.

When teens grow older their biological clock known as circadian rhythm, shifts to a later time

making it difficult for them to sleep before 11 pm.

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 Sleep Debt

It is also observed when older adolescents were restricted to just five hours of sleep a night,

they would become progressively sleepier during the course of the week. The loss is

cumulative, accounting for what it is known as sleep debt.

VI.Primary Disturbances

Chronic Insomnia

There are many primamary disturbances that affects the quality of sleep of many teenagers.

One of these disturbances is Chronic Insomnia, in which a person finds it difficult to fall

asleep, then sleeps only for a short period of time.

Pressures not to sleep

Teens have access to multiple electronic devices that they use simultaneously, often at night,

that grants them the privilege to stay up all night to play games and do homeworks, these

gadgets sometimes becomes a hindrance while sleeping, because of the late night calls, email

or texts.

Panic Attacks

Teenagers often stay up all night, finishing their requirements and prepping for their school test

and pop quizzes stacking their sleep debt and becoming more and more sleep deprived students

causing them to be less productive and reducing the overall concentration in their study.

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 Some School Shifts

After puberty, there is a biological shift in an adolescent’s internal clock of about 2 hours,

meaning that a teenager who used to fall asleep at 9:00 pm will now not be able to fall asleep

until 11:00 pm. It also means waking up 2 hours earlier in the morning.

VII.Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Teenagers

Mental Health Issues

Teens who sleep on average of six hours per night are most likely to suffer from depression.

Sleep deprivation causes the teenagers to be moody, irritable, and cranky. Furthermore, sleep-

deprived teenagers are also more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviors, such as engaging in

other dangerous activities.

Issues with learning and behaviour

Teens who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to be inattentive, impulsive, hyperactive, and

oppositional. Consequently, teens who get less sleep are more apt to get poor grades in school,

fall asleep in school, and have school tardiness or absences.

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 of

fueling sleep troubles. One study found that every 10 minutes later that a teenager went to bed,

there’s a 6 percent increase in the chance that they would use and abuse alcohol or marijuana.

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 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.

Dependence on Sleep and Anxiety Medications

One short-term effect to be aware of is the risk of prescription pill abuse. A study, found that

teens who are prescribed of sleeping pills or anxiety medications which can be highly habit

forming, are more likely to abuse those medications than without prescription.

VIII.What should parents do?

Educating teens and creating a family schedule is a big necessity for a sleep deprived teen.

Parents should advice their children to take afternoon naps, and help them to manitain the

family sleep schedule.

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 IX.Conclusion

Every human has a need, one of this need is sleep. Sleep is a complex, natural, recurrent, and

spontaneous state in which responsiveness to external stimulation is decreased. Sleep helps the

body to repair and refresh in preparation for the rigors of the day to come. Chronic Insomnia is

one of the primary factor that affects the quality of sleep of a person. Chronic insomnia is a

disorder, in which a person finds it hard to sleep, then sleep for a short-period of time only.

These factors causes the person to be deprived of slep which leads to certain short-term and

long-term health effects. Consequently, teen sleep deprivation is now an epidemic to the

teenagers because of the variety of distractions that surrounds them. In parents position, a sleep

schedule for the whole family is a good start to prevent this kind of deprivation form

happening.

Shakespeare called sleep,” the chief nourisher of life’s feast”. Without an adequate amount of

sleep our bodily system will starve. It is greatly recommended to the parents to set a proper

time to sleep and for the adolescents to follow this proper sleep schedule assigned for the

whole family and practice finishing homeworks early.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

CAUZ, J.1982. SLEEP DEPRIVATION. THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA

(VOLUME 17). 233, NORTH MICHIGAN AVENUE, CHICAGO: SCOTT FEIZER

COMPANY.

COMPTON. 2007. SLEEP DEPRIVATION. COMPTON’S BY BRITANNICA (VOLUME

21). CHICAGO, USA: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, INC.

MARSHALL, C.2001. A COMPLETE GUIDE TO SLEEP SOLUTION. 20 BLOOMSBURY

STREET, LONDON WC1B3JH: CAXTON EDITIONS.

SAFRA.1768. SLEEP AND DREAMS. THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA

(VOLUME 27) CHICAGO: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, INC

SANDBURG, C. 1922. WHAT HAPPEN WITHOUT SLEEP (VOLUME 17) . DANBURY,

CONNECTICUT: SCHOLASTIC PUBLISHING, INC.

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/10/among-teens-sleep-deprivation-an-

epidemic.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/7-scary-ways-sleep-deprivation-affects-teen-physical-and-

mental-health_us_55a7bd07e4b04740a3df0fb3

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 Definition of Terms

1. Adequate- sufficient for a specific need of requirement: lawfully and reasonably

sufficient.

2. REM- rapid-eye movement

3. NREM- non-rapid eye movement

4. Accentuated- to make something prominent or noticeable

5. Drowsy- ready to fall asleep: inducing oor tending to fall asleep

6. Ubiquitous- existing or being everywhere at the same time

7. Flaccid- not firm or stiff: lacking vigor or force

8. Myriad- ten thousand: a great number

9. Slurred- an insulting remark or innuendo: shaming effect: smudge

10. Exacerbate- to make more violent, bitter, or severe

11. Slumber- to sleep lightly: doze: to lie dormant or latent

12. Paranoia- mental illness characterized by systematized delusions of persecution or

grandeur usually without hallucinations.