Written By: Sofie Liu
Introduction
Take a moment to check in with yourself on how your sleep schedule has been for the past week. I’m certain you have heard your teachers, parents or friends preach the importance of sleep. However, it may seem impossible to prioritize sleep with all the deadlines, homework or exams coming your way. Having a healthy sleep schedule with quality sleep could impact your daily lives in so many ways: overall productivity, mental state, physical health and much more.
In this article, we are going to cover the importance of prioritizing sleep and how it boost productivity. Since, this is essential for all, especially for teenagers or highschool students like myself.
Drawbacks of Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation affects your ability to learn and process information in two ways. Firstly, lack of sleep may result in lack of focus, which makes it difficult to pick up information, therefore, you can’t learn efficiently. Secondly, it also affects memory, a key to learning and studying, which may be detrimental in the long term. Sleep insufficiency as a serious issue might lead to teens and students losing focus, diligence and memory capacity to perform well in school.
“I think high school is the real danger spot in terms of sleep deprivation,” said William Dement, MD, PhD, founder of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic, the first of its kind in the world. Many schools tend to start the day relatively early. Therefore, student’s sleep time decrease and many are forced out of bed before they are physically or mentally awake. Not only do students lose precious hours of quality sleep, but their natural rhythm-called circadian rhythm- is also disrupted, as they are being disturbed during some of the deepest, slow-wave sleep.
When you sleep, your brain processes information retrieved from the day, it is the most effortless way to remember large amounts of information. Therefore, if students don’t sleep enough during the school year, in the long term they won’t be able to learn and retain large amounts of information as effectively. Moreover, sleep loss can make it more challenging to maintain focus, attention and stay alert. In fact, struggling to stay awake uses mental energy, making it harder to stay focused on longer tasks that require longer attention spans.
In a TED talk video “What would happen if you didn’t sleep?”. Claudia Aguirre mentioned that adults need 7-8 hours of sleep, adolescents 10 hours of sleep. A major consequence of sleep deprivation has shown through various studies that chronically sleeping less than 6 hours a night, increases stroke by 4.5 times compared to the ones who sleep 7-8 hours. The phrase “sleep debt” has been used in explaining the concepts of sleep deprivation and it means that a person not getting enough sleep over a series of days may progressively worsen and build up day by day.
Ways to improve Your Sleep Quality
According to Michigan Medicine, here are a few tips to help you (as teens) sleep better:
Avoid keeping electronics in your bedroom
Charge phones elsewhere
Maintain a regular sleep schedule
Don't procrastinate on important or major tasks
Limit caffeine
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