Adam Redolfi
Composition & Rhetoric I
Assignment 3
“America’s Sleep deprived Adolescents”
In this release “America’s sleep deprived Teens Nodding off at School”, the National Sleep Foundation describes how a large proportion of adolescents don’t get enough sleep on school nights.
Surprisingly enough, most of today’s teens don’t get the recommended hours of sleep on school nights. Only a fifth of them sleep the nine advised hours and nearly one half sleeps less than eight hours per night.
This lack of sleep has many consequences on these young students. First of all, many students fall asleep during class, and are sleepy all day, sometimes even when they drive.
Second of all, it has been proven that adolescents who get insufficient amounts of sleep are more likely to get lower grades. In contrast, most of the students who get enough sleep are achieving high grades.
Despite all these facts, nine out of ten parents think there adolescent sleeps enough during the weeks, and so do teens that almost never complain or talk about their sleep problems.
A good night of sleep is vital; sleep an essential need like eating. For Dr. Mindell, director of the Sleep Center at the Children’s hospital in Philadelphia,“ Sending students to school without enough sleep is like sending them to school without breakfast”.
However, there are many other factors affecting adolescents’ sleep: One of them is caffeine, consumed by a lot of teens, which can make it harder for them to go to sleep early
Technology and electronic devices can also encroach on a good night’s sleep. All adolescents have many electronic items in their own room including televisions, mobile, phones, and video games. Statistics show that adolescent with four or more such items are almost twice as likely to fall asleep in school as well as while doing their homework.
Nevertheless, parents can help their adolescents develop and maintain healthy sleep habits by setting a consistent bedtime and...