Brown, 1

Mary Brown

Professor Leonard

English 2V3

1 April 2021

School or Sleep?

If you had the ability to help someone overcome or possibly completely avoid mental and

physical illnesses, would you? Society’s expectations for the average adolescent--including: the

early start time of most high schools, homework load, expected extracurricular engagement, and

working a part time job--result in the reality that most adolescents are significantly sleep

deprived. The lack of sleep brought on by these aforementioned commitments can result in

increased substance abuse, mental illnesses, overall poor academic performance, diabetes,

obesity and even untimely death among adolescents. The main contributor to sleep deprived

adolescents is the time at which high schools start.

Since school starting times contribute largely to the lack of sleep in adolescents,

understanding the reasoning behind the early start is crucial. Originally, students of all ages

attended school together and they all learned in the same room. Because of this, the classes for

every age started at the same time. As the separation of ages into grades became increasingly

common around the 1930’s, staggering the start times for school also became normalized. It was

decided that the older children (adolescents) would begin school earlier than the younger

children. The thought was that those in their teen years would start the earliest in an effort to

prepare them for adult life. In addition to that, adolescents were seen as more mature and
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therefore waking up earlier would not be a problem for them. In recent years, however, evidence

has come to light about the ways this negatively affects adolescents (Wahlstrom).

When studying adolescent’s sleeping patterns, it becomes apparent how detrimental

waking up early can be to their development. Adolescents’ bodies require nine or more hours of

sleep per night for full development both mentally and physically, and yet around 85% of

adolescents receive less than eight hours of sleep per night. An estimated 23.8% of adolescents

suffer from insomnia (Suni) which is a sleep disorder in which you have trouble falling and/or

staying asleep (Ratini). There are multiple reasons behind the lack of sleep adolescents receive.

Despite the common theory of them being lazy and unmotivated, teens are biologically

hardwired to go to bed later and wake up later due to their melatonin secretion. Melatonin

secretion provides a circadian and seasonal signal to the organisms in vertebrates. Melatonin is

produced from serotonin (made from tryptophan), through a cascade of enzymatic reactions

(Masters). While adults and pre-teen’s melatonin secretion varies and is flexible, adolescent’s

melatonin secretion is stricter. In a typical adolescent, the body does not secrete melatonin until

10:45 p.m. at the earliest and the body finishes secreting melatonin at around 8:00 a.m. The

cause for this is mainly puberty and the teen years being major years in development

(McNamara).
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Fig. 1: This graph depicts the percentage of depression in each age group. Ages 16-21 have the

greatest percentage over all while ages 22-25 seem to be rapidly increasing (Brueck).

Lack of sleep influences every aspect of an adolescent’s lives. Sleep deprived adolescents

are more likely to have depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. Most research points to what

Alex Dimitriu describes as a bidirectional relationship. Essentially, sleep (according to our

current data) can cause mental disorders, and mental disorders make it harder to sleep. This

brings about a circular arrangement where ‘A’ causes ‘B’ and simultaneously, ‘B’ causes ‘A’

resulting in a continually loop. Additionally, a recent study shows that the number of depressed

and anxious adolescents has increased rapidly in recent years (Richter). The relationship between
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sleep and mental health is more closely connected then most may think. Sleeping gives your

body the time to rejuvenate itself both mentally and physically. The brain is stimulated during

different stages of sleep, such as REM and NREM. Research shows that REM sleep helps your

brain process emotional information while NREM is a calmer time in your sleep pattern with less

brain activity (excluding a few bursts of activity scattered throughout the cycle) (Dimitriu).

One mental health disorder related to sleep is depression. An estimated 300 million

people in the world suffer from depression. Depression is a disorder relating to a person’s overall

mood. This disorder is displayed through feelings of hopelessness and feelings of sadness.

(Dimitriu). Approximately 75 percent of people who suffer from depression also suffer from

insomnia. In the past, people believed the depression caused the insomnia, but recent evidence

suggests that these two illnesses seem to cause or reinforce each another (Dimitriu).

Another mental health disorder related to sleep is anxiety. According to the American

Psychological Association, anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried

thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure. Anxiety causes your brain to

overthink and hyper focus on certain topics, which in turn makes it exceedingly difficult to fall

asleep. Since hyper focusing is a symptom of insomnia, people with anxiety generally have

insomnia as well. Similar to depression, anxiety has a bidirectional relationship with insomnia in

which anxiety and insomnia cause and/or reinforce one another (Dimitriu).

One last mental health disorder related to sleep is bipolar disorder. According to Alex

Dimitriu, bipolar disorder involves episodes of extreme moods that can be both high (mania) and

low (depression). When a person is bipolar, it is not just their mental habits that are affected their

sleeping habits could also be affected depending on if they are in a moment of mania (high) or

depression (low). Research shows that during moments of mania, they feel the need to sleep less
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and sometimes end up with an unhealthy lack of sleep. Conversely, while in moments of

depression, they feel the need to sleep more and usually sleep for long, sometimes excessive

amounts. Recent evidence suggests that problems falling and staying asleep can bring about

and/or worsen bipolar episodes. The bidirectional relationship mentioned above is also

applicable when talking about bipolar disorder, meaning a lack of sleep can bring about a bipolar

episode, and bipolar episodes can prolong a lack of sleep (Dimitriu).

Sleep quality does not just affect adolescents mentally, but physically and emotionally as

well. Lack of sleep in adolescents results in stunted growth, increased chances of obesity and

diabetes, and decreases academic excellence. The aforementioned reasoning behind having

adolescents start school the earliest is deeply flawed. The main issue is the incorrect assumption

that teenagers and adults are at the same stage in hormonal and physical development. It needs to

be understood that teenagers are still developing hormonally and have extremely different needs

than the needs of a fully developed adult. Not only does a lack of sleep stunt an adolescent’s

physical and hormonal development, lack of sleep also negatively affects their relationships with

family and friends and negatively affects their academic performance (Becutti).

Adolescents are going through multiple changes, including major hormonal shifts. This is

the time in an adolescent’s life when puberty starts to hit them. This implies major physical

changes along with increased hormonal activity. These developments require sleep in order to

fully develop an adolescent’s body. During sleep, growth hormone is released. Because of this,

adolescents going through a growth spurt require more sleep than they normally would. One

negative effect a continuous lack of sleep could have on adolescents is stunted growth. When

adolescents receive less sleep then necessary, growth hormone is suppressed. While one night of
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restless or inadequate sleep will not have lasting damages on growth, a continual lack of sound

sleep will bring about damages in their physique (Dowshen).

Another negative effect a lack of sleep has physically on adolescents is increased chances

of developing obesity and diabetes. New research has linked sleep to these illnesses. The reason

for the link between the two is that sleep is a regulator for metabolism and neuroendocrine

function (which relates to the interactions between the bodies endocrine system and nervous

system. Neuroendocrine describes the different cells that cause hormones to be dispersed

throughout the blood in our bodies in response to the nervous system being incited) (NCI

Dictionary of Cancer Terms). Lack of sleep has been proven to decrease glucose production,

decrease the bodies sensitivity to insulin, decrease leptin levels and increase the desire for food

and snacks. All the factors brought on by lack of sleep, contribute to obesity and diabetes

(Beccuti).satra

Another area affected by lack of sleep is academic excellence. Studies have proven that

when schools implement a later starting time, the academic excellence of the student body

increases dramatically. The reason behind this may be that students are more awake and alert

throughout the day and able to retain information more than if they were groggy and disoriented

all day. Sleep also helps brain functionality and promotes analytical thought, attention, and

memory. Not only is academic excellence increased, attendance is also increased with later start

time. The reason behind this may be that when adolescents wake up exceedingly early, their

bodies feel run down and may even show symptoms of sickness. Therefore, they may think they

have an illness and stay home to recover, when in reality they are sleep deprived. Later start

times help combat these issues.

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One of the more alarming effects of sleep deprivation among adolescents is the car

accidents due to drowsy driving. Due to the circadian rhythm (24-hour pattern that is run by the

body’s interior clock, which, when managed correctly, helps perform essential tasks and

operations) (Dimitiu) and melatonin secretion, adolescents run on a sleep schedule. Going to bed

after 11 (due to melatonin secretion) and waking up after 8, is a healthy sleep schedule and one

that your body continually tries to implement. School start times interfere with this sleep

schedule. Even without factoring melatonin secretion, most schools still start too early and assign

too much homework for it to be reasonable or even possible for adolescents to receive the

suggested 8-10 hours of sleep (Dimitiu).

Taking all the aforementioned factors into account, it is easy to see how drowsy driving

might occur. One study researched two different schools with start times an hour apart. The

school that started at 7:20 a.m. experienced 65.4 out of 1000 students getting into a car accident,

while the school that started at 8:40 a.m. experienced 46.2 out of 1000 students getting into a car

wreck. That is a 41% difference. In another study, the researchers found that pushing back school

start times in order to allow sleep for adolescents resulted in a 16.5% decrease in accidents

caused by adolescents (Holohan).

Another experiment showed that 1 in every 10 accidents are caused by drowsy driving.

Additionally, adolescents account for over 50 percent of the accidents relating to drowsy driving

(Troxel). These statistics are obviously concerning. By disrupting adolescent’s sleep schedules,

we are not only harming them physically, emotionally, and mentally, we are also inadvertently

causing possible harm to the citizens in our towns and cities. It is said that drowsy driving is just

as dangerous as drunk driving, and yet drowsy driving is not only completely legal and

normalized but sometimes necessary among adolescents. In one article, a mother claimed that
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she would never let her child drunk drive, yet she continually lets them drive drowsy. This

mindset is incredibly common among parents who often do not realize the danger in drowsy

driving. (Troxel).

While drowsy driving is extremely concerning for adolescents and the citizens in our

cities, the impact a lack of sleep has on substance abuse can be argued to be just as concerning.

Studies have shown that adolescents with an unhealthy sleep schedule or an unhealthy lack of

sleep are more likely to have problems with substance abuse. The reason behind this is that,

“the impact of lack of sleep on dopamine receptors suggests that stimulant misuse and impaired

sleep could be a vicious cycle: Stimulants impair sleep, and reduced sleep produces changes in

the brain that predispose to further drug use and addiction.” (Volkow). Basically, lack of sleep

affects our bodies dopamine receptors and opens our bodies to further substance abuse which in

turn leads to impaired sleep. This cycle is incredibly similar to the bidirectional relationship

stated above (pertaining to mental illnesses).

School start times are not the only thing that hinder adolescents from quality sleep. Other

factors contributing to lack of sleep are sports, clubs, extracurriculars, part-time jobs and

homework. While not all of these categories are activities directly pushed by school, all of them

are pushed by society. Understanding the reasoning behind society and schools pushing these

different activities is crucial when trying to persuade schools to accommodate sleep by

implementing later start times.

One main focus schools have (specifically high schools) is college acceptance rate and

graduation rate. They believe that if students participate in school activities and join clubs then

they have a better chance of graduating and getting into good colleges. While this may be true,

the schools are overlooking the health concerns they are causing through this way of thinking
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(Fox). While extracurricular activities are good in moderation, more often than not, students take

on too many, mainly because of the pressure to join clubs put on the students by the school, to

the point where their whole life consists of school and school activities. Tara Konkoly, a 16-

year-old sophomore states, “As a freshman, the teachers and staff of my school pushed us to join

clubs. I stay after school every day because of all the clubs I am in. Teachers particularly stressed

how good these clubs would look on college applications and how they would help me stay

focused on graduating, but all the commitments and late nights are negatively affecting my

health mentally, physically and emotionally. But most importantly, my relationships with my

parents and my brothers suffer from all of my commitments.” Tara does not play any sports or

any instruments, she stays after for clubs and clubs only (Konkoly).

The expectation of adolescents taking on a part-time job is brought on mainly by their

parents and society as a whole. The main reason behind the need for part-time jobs is college

tuition. Parents are rarely able to fully pay for their child’s tuition to college, so they often push

their child to get a job and save money for college. Not only do parents expect children to pay for

college, some parents expect their children to pay for their car, their car repairs, gas, clothes,

food and more. It is not that these expectations are unreasonable, it is just that they are real and

valid. Adolescents are generally expected to pay for most of their necessities and non-necessities.

Another thing adolescents might be expected to pay for is sports.

Sports are a kind of release for a lot of adolescents. Sports provide an outlet for

adolescents to get rid of any extra energy or frustrations they might have and they also provide a

way of keeping physically fit for adolescents (Comello). Studies have also proven how positively

sports affect adolescent’s academic careers. Students who play sports get better grades and have

higher graduation rates (At Your Own Risk: Benefits of High School Sports). So, not only are
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sports a fun outlet, they are proven to be a healthy outlet. However, at times, sports still detract

from student’s sleep. Ways sports might detract from sleep include: injuries, tournaments out of

town or state, practices and conditioning, and games.

Homework is another source of lack of sleep among adolescents. In a typical high school,

a student takes about seven classes per semester. That directly corelates to the amount of

homework they receive. Along with completing homework, they have tests to study for and

projects to complete for their classes. These different types of homework dramatically affect

their sleep schedule (Konkoly).

These different expectations and activities, while good in moderation, can be detrimental

to development. For example, clubs are good and important among adolescents, but

overindulging in said clubs is quite frankly, terrible for adolescent’s health. The same goes for

homework. Homework is important for information retention among adolescents. However, too

much homework causes adolescents to be drained and exhausted and yet still having to work due

to the excessive amounts of homework given each night. Similarly, it is good and healthy for

adolescents to play sports, but not at the expense of their grades or more importantly their sleep.

In an interview conducted by Mary Brown, Brady Comello, a football player at his local high

school said, “all the guys on my team are so focused and committed to their sports. In the off

season, we all work out together, and we keep each other in check. But my mom is always telling

me to focus on my grades more because I become hyper focused on sports and athletics. My

commitment to sports makes it a lot harder to commit to other things like homework.” When

asked if his love for sports affects his sleep, he responded saying, “I would say, overall, yes. I

work a job, am in a club at school and have homework, so juggling all that along with working

out is tremendously difficult. Sleep is always put on the back burner; all the other things are
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more important to me.” This mindset is sadly exceedingly common, however, also

understandable. Adolescents tend to focus on things that are important to them (Satra), and many

fail to recognize how important sleep should be to them.

Based on the information above, it is clear that sleep dramatically affects adolescent’s

health. There is evidence that a lack of sleep can cause these mental disorders, which begs the

question: why are we as a society not accommodating adolescents in their need for sleep? A

solution to most of these problems would be schools pushing back their start time. With this

comes a lot of repercussions such as school ending later, less time for sports, less time for clubs,

less time for homework and less time for a part-time job. However, ways to counteract these

negative developments include: only assigning completely necessary homework, having

businesses react to the change in start time and have them change their work hours, having times

for clubs and sports be pushed to after dinner instead of right after school. While this change

would drastically affect all aspects of life, it would eventually drastically improve all aspects as

well. When looking at all the proof and examples listed above of how positively sleep affects

adolescents mentally, physically, emotionally and academically, it is easy to see how necessary a

change is. Especially when considering the negative effects, such as: car accidents and mental

illnesses. Certain schools have implemented a later start time and while they have experienced

problems with certain after school activities, they mostly have positive outcomes such as; better

overall academic performance, better attendance and a dramatic improvement in the morale of

the students.

In conclusion, considering all of the expectations placed on adolescents from society,

school and their parents, an adolescent having a normal and healthy sleep schedule is almost

impossible. Even though schools are aware of the negative side effects a lack of sleep has on
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adolescents, and they are aware they could help, they do nothing to fix the obvious problem. The

million dollar question is, what will you do?

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