For some reason, high school students don’t understand the importance of sleep. Teenagers need eight to ten hours of sleep, but on average, they usually get around seven hours. At our age and at this time in our lives, we need sleep in order to keep up with school and all the extra activities we do.  Steven Lockley of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston says that “sleep may be more essential to us than food; animals will die of sleep deprivation before starvation…”

When we don’t get sleep, bad things start to happen. First, after twenty-four hours without sleep, you get tired (duh), your judgment is impaired, your memory is affected, and more. Then, after thirty-six hours, your physical health starts to decline. Michael Finkel from National Geographic says that “there is further evidence that sleep is essential for maintaining a healthy immune system, body temperature, and blood pressure.” This means that if you don’t get enough sleep, you get sick more easily. After seventy-two hours, you start experiencing hallucinations, and you become increasingly paranoid.

“Anyone who regularly sleeps less than six hours has a higher risk of depression, psychosis, stroke, and obesity. Sleep undermines your whole body,” said Finkel. Lack of sleep is very bad for everyone especially for teenagers who need to keep up with school.

You may ask yourself after reading this, “Is there any hope for me? Am I just going to collapse from sheer exhaustion because of all the schoolwork I need to keep up with?” Of course there is a fix to this problem.

First, you need to get off your phone. Blue lights keep you up at night, and one of the major sources of blue light is your phone. You should stop looking at your screens at least thirty minutes before going to bed, and you definitely shouldn’t spend hours watching TV in bed. If you need to use screens for schoolwork, devices like phones and computers have night modes that change the screen colors to hues of red or orange. Red light doesn’t affect your sleep cycle like blue light does.

Another thing you can do to get more sleep is manage your time better. It is helpful to plan out your day so you don’t get stuck goofing off. Allowing yourself a little free time isn’t a problem. However, it is a problem when you get on Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube, look up, and find that you have been wasting time for several hours. On a day when you have little to no homework, go to bed earlier. Don’t go to bed late for no reason.

Sleep is a crucial part of keeping yourself healthy. Without sleep, you die. Get a good night’s sleep tonight so you can keep going tomorrow.

Courtesy to nationwidechildrens.org, National Geographic, and everydayhealth.com for the information to this article.

Courtesy to Google for images.