As busy middle and high schoolers here at PCS, many of us find organizing time for homework and afterschool activities a useful tactic for success. Some students value sleep more than others, while others survive with only a few hours of sleep. Regardless of your preference on the amount of sleep you choose to get, sleep deprivation is a real and serious issue for adolescent teenagers all around the world, and likely at PCS.

On Monday, January 11 of 2016, I decided to ask a few of my friends if they were satisfied with the average hours of sleep they got on a school day. About 40% of them told me that they receive about 7 hours of sleep per night, and only 10% of them felt that the 7 hours of sleep satisfied them. Some of the test subjects claimed to be “tired” people everyday, and that getting more sleep would not make a huge difference in the satisfaction. On the other hand, test subjects that said they receive 8 hours of sleep (20%) felt as though the amount of sleep they got satisfies them. The average amount of sleep that my test subjects received on average per day was 7.375 hours.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adolescent teenagers in middle and high school receive around 8-10 hours of sleep. In 2006, a National Sleep Poll was conducted, and found that 87.5% of teens did not meet the national sleep recommendation, and that 6.8 hours is now the national sleep average for teens. The average sleep in teens has been decreasing due to the proliferation of new technology. The average number of hours of sleep that my test subjects received (7.375 hours) does not meet the standard of the national recommendation. Sleep has also proven to be a subjective activity. So, if you get less than 8-10 hours of sleep but still feel satisfied yourself, sleep deprivation will most likely not affect your life in the long run or short run. However, if you get somewhere between 3-5 hours of sleep per night and feel very tired every single day, you should probably change your sleep patterns.

Getting deprived of sleep has some bad repercussions. Bad sleep can lead to an inability to concentrate, which could lead to missed information for tests, bad grades, and could therefore even lead to anxiety and depression. Sleep deprivation can also lead to an increase in acne, weight loss or gain, and memory loss.

On the other  hand, getting too much sleep has negative effects on the body. Too much sleep can lead to headaches, and drowsiness. While eighth-grade PCS Student Brooke Pearson says, “Anything over 8 ½ or 9 hours of sleep makes me drowsy.” others such as Tenth-Grade PCS Student Isabella Cuturrufo say “9 hours of sleep satisfies me just right.” The amount of sleep that satisfies you is almost completely subjective, and it is important that you find a happy medium.