Allgood 1

Grant Allgood

Melissa Wilson

English II Honors

00 December 2019

Sleep Deprivation in Teens

There is an ongoing problem with teens in school that affects their mental, physical, and

emotional health. That problem is called Sleep Deprivation, its when teens don’t get enough

sleep. And it's not all the teens fault it could be too much homework or school starting too early,

and extracurricular activities. Sleep deprivation has many negative impacts such as depression

and obesity. I think this problem should be addressed because of the fact that teens health could

be in danger, and people should care because it will soon impact our future if nothing is done.

Teens need 9.5 hours or more to function best in school, so that would mean since school

starts at 7:15 most students wake up at around 5:30 to get that 9.5 hours of sleep they would need

to get to bed at 9:00. Another factor that you could put in is that students have extracurricular

activities such as sports or other things outside of school,such as american football practice. As a

matter of fact American football practice starts at the end of school and ends at 6:00 pm, that

would only give the football player 3 more hours to get home and do their other things such as

eating and homework. The student will then have to stay up later in order to finish their

homework. This is not just sports, its clubs and work. This can cause sleep deprivation, due to

the fact that these problems keep teens later. Sleep deprivation can cause Overweight, not
 Allgood 2

engaging in daily physical activity, suffering from depressive symptoms, engaging in unhealthy

risk behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, and performing poorly in school. Sleep deprivation

will impact our future because if this problem continues the teens of today will grow up and live

terrible lives, and then ruining the future. To fix this problem schools should start later.

There are some ways that sleep deprivation can be stopped or dealt with, and that can be

possible if schools start at a later time than usual. If school start later than there would be no sign

of sleep deprivation in teens. In fact, some schools are already starting later such as California,

Oklahoma, Georgia, and New York. In California and Georgia High School starts around 8:30

that is 1 hour and 25 minutes later than the school start time at Heritage High School. This

strategy or plan to start school later is much more beneficial to students' health. Another solution

to sleep deprivation could also be a school related things such as much less homework. Students

would say the only reason that they stay up at night is because their teachers will pack them with

homework to do overnight. Even if homework could potentially help a students grade and allow

the student to work harder, and learn more; it is just too much for the student. But even if these

potential solutions were to be carried out there are some pros and cons to them. Such as in

starting school later, there are pros to that which consist of prevention of sleep deprivation which

then causes teens health to improve, students may have the time to do homework in the morning

before school. But there are some cons to that plan such as that it will take a lot of time to change

the whole school start times across america, it could mess with teachers schedules outside of

school, a small problem could be that it's hard to get that information or to people, and it also

leaves less time for extracurricular activities such as football practice (it's not like the school is
 Allgood 3

willing to shorten it). My other solution was to get less homework to students the pros of this is

that is could prevent sleep deprivation and wont make students stay up as late. But there are

many cons to this as well such as students grades may not have enough minor assignments to get

their grades up.

In conclusion, I will have to say that sleep deprivation has to be stopped. And the best

way to do this is to Start School Times later. This is probably one of the best options out of the

two mainly because it will prevent sleep deprivation easier. And if this is carried out then our

mental future will be safe in the minds of future teens.

 Allgood 4

Works Cited

● “Point: Later School Day Start Times Are Crucial to the Health and Academic Success of Students.” ​Points

of View: Later School Day Start Time,​ no. 2017, Apr. 2017, p. 1. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=122636753&site=pov-live.

● Crelin, Joy. “Later School Day Start Time: An Overview.” ​Points of View: Later School Day Start Time​, no.

2017, Apr. 2017, p. 1. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=122636752&site=pov-live.

● “Late Start Movement in Line With Teens.” ​Marketwire (English)​, 12 May 2014. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,custuid&custid=s8455861&db=n5h&AN=B2IDM

KE11G015590-001&site=ehost-live&scope=site.