The Effect of Sleep On Adolescents
Jaime Conklin
Southern CT State University
The teenage years are full of exciting new changes biologically, cognitively, behaviorally, emotionally and socially. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with all of these changes. The body is changing at a much faster pace than one is used to, classwork starts to pile up, one tends to form more friendships/relationships and hormones are out of whack. Overall, adolescence is a very stressful time in life. One key aspect that a sufficient amount of research has gone into is teenage sleep. With earlier start times in school, longer days with extracurricular activities and more papers and projects to keep up with, there is barely enough time to sleep. It can be suggested that teenagers who do not get enough sleep at night will have decreased functioning among all five levels.
One particular study done by Wolfson and & Carskadon described the relationship between adolescents sleep/wake habits, characteristics and overall daytime functioning (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Daytime functioning measured mood, school performance and behavior (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). In 1994, an eight-page School Sleep Habits survey was given to homeroom classes at four different public schools (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). The school-start times ranged from 7:10am to 7:30am (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). The survey posed questions regarding typical sleep/wake behaviors over the past 2 weeks, school performance and depressive mood (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). 395 students were studied from School A, 1,077 students from School B, 745 students from School C and 903 students from School D, reaching a total of 3,120 students from four different schools (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Variables included total sleep time (TST), bedtime, rise time, weekend delay and weekend oversleep (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). School performance was self-reported by asking the students which category he/she fell into; “Are your grades mostly A’s, A’s and B’s, B’s and C’s, C’s and D’s, D’s, or D’s and F’s” (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Students were then asked about sleepiness. The student was asked whether he/she struggled to stay awake in certain situations and then used a scale of 1-4 to answer (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Sleep/wake behaviors were measured similarly, except using a scale from 1-5 instead regarding frequency. Mood was measured using questions regarding irritability and bothersome (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998).
The results showed that the teenagers in this particular study were not getting enough sleep during the week (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). The article states that out of 3,000 high school students, most reported lower total sleep time and wished that they were able to sleep more (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Results also showed that as the subject age increased, the mean total sleep decreased by 38 minutes (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Average weekend total sleep also decreased as subjects aged by 42 minutes (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). 87% of the sample size had also reported that they needed more sleep than they already got (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998).
Another study aimed its direction more towards the behavioral level. The researchers explored the relationship between sleep and temperament in adolescents. Research was conducted by using 516 adolescent twins and their mothers from the Michigan State University Twin Registry (Moore et. al, 2011). A sleep composite score was used to help determine adolescent behavior and emotional problems. The sleep composite score was taken from the four sleep related questions on two different reports (Moore et. al, 2011). Each item being tested was given a score of 0 (not true), 1 (somewhat or sometimes true) or 2 (very true) by both the parent and the child (Moore et. al, 2011). The higher score was used for calculations. The scores for each of the four questions were then summed; a higher score representing worse outcomes and a lower score representing no outcome (Moore et. al, 2011). The alpha for the sleep composite was 0.70 (Moore et. al, 2011). The early adolescent temperament questionnaire-revised (EATQ-R) was also used to measure temperament. Four factor scores included surgency/extraversion, affiliativeness/sociability, negative affectivity and effortful control/impulsivity were used to answer the 86-item questionnaire (Moore et. al, 2011).
Results showed that there was a significant correlation within three out of the four factors; sleep and effortful control, affiliativeness and negative affectivity (Moore et. al, 2011). These correlations suggest that higher sleep problems scores relate to higher scores on negative affect, impulsivity, and sociability, proving that sleep has a negative effect on temperament (Moore et. al, 2011).
A third study reviewed for this paper looked further into the effects of sleep on adolescent health and how adolescents perceive and deal with their sleep issues. The purpose of the study was to investigate adolescents at 3 different high schools regarding the prevalence of sleep deprivation, factors that affect sleep, perceptions on sleep and the effect of sleep deprivation on academic performance and health (Noland, 2009). The first school used was a large middle class public high school with 2,183 students (Noland, 2009). The second school was a rural public high school with 500 students and the third was also a rural school with 544 students reaching a total of 3,227 students (Noland, 2009). 678 of those students were given the opportunity to participate in the survey, while only 384 were granted permission by their guardians (Noland, 2009). To make measurements more reliable, all three high schools had a start time of 7:30am. Each student was given a 4-page, 37-item questionnaire and then again one week later (Noland, 2009). Once all results were plugged into data analysis, it was reported that sleep deprivation has the following effects: being more tired during the day (93.7%), having difficulty paying attention (83.6%), lower grades (60.8%), increase in stress (59.0%), and having difficulty getting along with others (57.5%) (Noland, 2009). 73.3% of the students believed that teenagers should get between 8 and 9 hours of sleep each night (Noland, 2009). In regards to school starting at a later time, 31.6% reported an 8am start would be sufficient and 25% reported that school should start earlier than 8am (Noland, 2009). 82% of the students believed that exercising on most days of the week would help sleep habits (Noland, 2009). Many students also believed that reducing caffeine intake would improve sleep habits and that naps can make up for lost sleep (Noland, 2009). With all of the data analyses, it can be concluded that adolescents do benefit from having consistent sleep times (Noland, 2009).
Now that three different studies have been summarized, the results can be analyzed a bit further. Two of the studies reported that the adolescents were not getting enough sleep. A typical adolescent needs 9.25 hours of sleep each night in order to function at maximal level (Frontline.org). The world is much different today than it was 10 years ago. Adolescents may be reporting inadequate total sleep time because bedtimes become later as one ages and wake up times relatively stay the same (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Teens also may not be getting adequate sleep because of technology. It can be difficult to fall asleep when there is a bright LED screen in the hands or an even bigger screen against the wall.
Adolescents have this tendency to stay up later at night sleep in late the next morning. This common habit is also known as sleep delay (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). Adolescents’ sleep patterns on the weekends show more of a sleep delay compared to weekdays because the go to bed later and think it’s okay because they don’t have school the next morning so why not sleep till 11am? The main cause of this sleep delay process is due to puberty (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998). The body is going through so many different psychosocial and biological changes at this time that nothing is “normal” and the body does not know what is right or what is wrong.
One study showed that as children reached puberty, they were less likely to wake up on their own and would have slept longer if it were not for the staff for waking them up (Wolfson & Carskadon, 1998).
All three studies summarized above showed significant findings. Findings include that adolescents do not get enough sleep during the week, sleep deprivation correlates with temperament and adolescents benefit from adequate sleep. If you dig deeper to these very broad findings, findings suggest that sleep deficits affect mood, the ability to think and perform/react appropriately (Frontline.org). Many suggestions have been made to help fix this problem that adolescents have not been sleeping enough.
A huge controversial suggestion includes starting school later for adolescents. To answer the main question, yes, this policy would help teenagers acquire more adequate sleep (Wahlstrom et al, 2014). To prove this theory, a 3-year study was conducted with over 9,000 students throughout eight public high schools over three states (Wahlstrom et al, 2014). High schools that start at 8:30am or later allow for more than 60% of students to obtain at least 8 hours of sleep each school night (Wahlstrom et al, 2014). Those who did not obtain 8 hours of sleep in this study reported back that their depression symptoms worsened, there was a greater use of caffeine and they were at greater risk for making poor decisions on substance abuse (Wahlstrom et al, 2014). Starting school at 8:30am or later also proved that academic performance increased. Grades in the core subject areas improved, as well as the state and national achievement standardized tests (Wahlstrom et al, 2014). Attendance rates and reduced tardiness also showed positive improvement (Wahlstrom et al, 2014). Another incredible statistic resulting from this study is that car crashes for 16-18 year olds were reduced by 70% when school started at 8:55am (Wahlstrom et al, 2014).
Although the study done by Wahlstrom showed incredibly positive effects for starting high school later, there are also negative effects to come with the change. Many students participate in afterschool activities, whether that be arts, athletics or academics. If the start time for school was later, these extracurricular activities would also get pushed back or even canceled (Frontline.org). Studies do prove that later start times help students’ function, but activity level also helps students (Frontline.org) The bus times would also have to change, meaning that parents would not be able to get to work on time or would have to get home early from work if their child could not be trusted home alone (Frontline.org). Some parents of teenagers also have toddlers. The parents may have their teenager take care of the toddler when they are back from school, later start time would mean that this would not be possible and the parents would have to spend more money on a daycare. Starting high school later would cause an inconvenience to staff, students, coaches, and parents.
Personally, high schools should stick at the start time they have right now. As a current student-athlete, waking up early and sticking to a strict schedule builds discipline. Schoolwork always gets finished regardless of practice, meetings, games or lift. High school is the building block for time management. Changing the start time later only tells teenagers that its okay to sleep later if you’re tired or suggests that people will change their policies for you if you want them to. I think that if a student wants to participate in extra-curricular activities, he/she should, it is a choice. Hopefully that student learns to manage their time in a manner where other priorities do not get negatively affected. In any circumstance, if one wants to get more sleep, he/she should go to bed earlier.
References
FRONTLINE: Inside the Teenage Brain. (n.d.). Retrieved February 05, 2017,from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/view/
Moore, M., Slane, J., Mindell, J. A., Burt, S. A., & Klump, K. L. (2011). Sleep problems and temperament in adolescents. Child: Care, Health & Development, 37(4), 559-562. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2010.01157.x
Noland, H., Price, J. H., Dake, J., & Telljohann, S. K. (2009). Adolescents’ Sleep Behaviors and Perceptions of Sleep. Journal Of School Health, 79(5), 224-230.
Wahlstrom, K., Dretzke, B., Gordon, M., Peterson, K., Edwards, K., & Gdula, J. (2014). Examining the Impact of Later School Start Times on the Health and Academic Performance of High School Students: A Multi-Site Study. Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. St Paul, MN: University of Minnesota.
Wolfson, A. R., & Carskadon, M. A. (1998). Sleep Schedules and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents. Child Development, 69(4), 875. doi:10.2307/1132351