Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A633098
Summary of Article: This article illustrates the effect of sleep on teenagers. Lack of motivation and wild swings of emotion are attributed to a teenager’s lack of sleep. In fact, lack of sleep could even cause mental lapses, making teenagers more prone to accidents. The article goes on to elaborate on how the lack of sleep also causes teenagers to expend more energy and effort to accomplish a given task. Depression and laziness are also obvious repercussions of this. The research shows all of this and more, and explains clearly the reasons why these problems arise and how the situation could be reversed.
Comment: What struck me mere moments after I had finished reading this article was its astonishing relevance to my life. Such was the parallel that I was able to relate what I learned with what I had experienced with no effort or difficulty whatsoever. Needless to say, (having experienced some of the effects cited both first-hand and second-hand) I wholeheartedly give this article the nod; arguing that lack of sleep is not an issue regarding teenagers would be very futile indeed.
A teenager’s life is hectic; at least from my experience. The Raffles Program introduced the first elements of what was to come, as we were bombarded by tests every week and dizzying amounts of homework. Add to that the demanding hours of CCA and you are left with a teenager who needs to sleep late at night even if he does not complete all of his homework early or do revision. Enter an industrious student who strives for excellence. This coupled with the advent of Secondary Three life with so many more subjects than the year before, and what remains is a very stressed teenager who needs to burn midnight oil at least 5 days a week. Note that these scenarios do not include playing time or resting time, either. The worst thing about these scenarios is that they are realistic. As a matter of fact, I know of more than one person in my class who leads such a lifestyle.
Having thus established that lack of sleep is indeed a major problem that teenagers today encounter, I must also mention that many of the effects of this are also apparent. Not least of these is the constant mood swings and motivation variations that teenagers undergo. It is not uncommon to be talking casually to a friend one instant, and to be yelling in exasperation the next. Another frequent repercussion of lack of sleep is mind lapses. I have often heard tales from my friends of how they suddenly realize that they did not know what was going on during lesson even though they thought they were listening. In this way, students are unable to thoroughly grasp what is being taught in class.
Reasons for teenagers sleeping late have been suggested, such as the circadian rhythms (in article). A suggested solution to this problem is starting school later. It is said that this will allow students to rest better, and has been backed up by researchers. However, it is my belief that students should be given less work to do as well. It has been said that the amount of sleep a teenager should get every day is 9 hours. If asked the average number of hours of sleep a Rafflesian teenager gets, I believe 6 would be an appropriate estimate. Lack of sleep drastically reduces the quality of work of teenagers, and also undermines whatever education systems that are in place because the students will be hard-pressed to adhere to them. Therefore, it is my conviction that lack of sleep is a huge barrier to a teenager’s success in life, and I maintain that measures must be taken to change this situation.
I shall end off with a particular phrase from the article which caught my eye:
Technology has enabled us to travel faster, communicate faster and prepare food faster, but no one has discovered a way to sleep faster.
Summary of Article: This article illustrates the effect of sleep on teenagers. Lack of motivation and wild swings of emotion are attributed to a teenager’s lack of sleep. In fact, lack of sleep could even cause mental lapses, making teenagers more prone to accidents. The article goes on to elaborate on how the lack of sleep also causes teenagers to expend more energy and effort to accomplish a given task. Depression and laziness are also obvious repercussions of this. The research shows all of this and more, and explains clearly the reasons why these problems arise and how the situation could be reversed.
Comment: What struck me mere moments after I had finished reading this article was its astonishing relevance to my life. Such was the parallel that I was able to relate what I learned with what I had experienced with no effort or difficulty whatsoever. Needless to say, (having experienced some of the effects cited both first-hand and second-hand) I wholeheartedly give this article the nod; arguing that lack of sleep is not an issue regarding teenagers would be very futile indeed.
A teenager’s life is hectic; at least from my experience. The Raffles Program introduced the first elements of what was to come, as we were bombarded by tests every week and dizzying amounts of homework. Add to that the demanding hours of CCA and you are left with a teenager who needs to sleep late at night even if he does not complete all of his homework early or do revision. Enter an industrious student who strives for excellence. This coupled with the advent of Secondary Three life with so many more subjects than the year before, and what remains is a very stressed teenager who needs to burn midnight oil at least 5 days a week. Note that these scenarios do not include playing time or resting time, either. The worst thing about these scenarios is that they are realistic. As a matter of fact, I know of more than one person in my class who leads such a lifestyle.
Having thus established that lack of sleep is indeed a major problem that teenagers today encounter, I must also mention that many of the effects of this are also apparent. Not least of these is the constant mood swings and motivation variations that teenagers undergo. It is not uncommon to be talking casually to a friend one instant, and to be yelling in exasperation the next. Another frequent repercussion of lack of sleep is mind lapses. I have often heard tales from my friends of how they suddenly realize that they did not know what was going on during lesson even though they thought they were listening. In this way, students are unable to thoroughly grasp what is being taught in class.
Reasons for teenagers sleeping late have been suggested, such as the circadian rhythms (in article). A suggested solution to this problem is starting school later. It is said that this will allow students to rest better, and has been backed up by researchers. However, it is my belief that students should be given less work to do as well. It has been said that the amount of sleep a teenager should get every day is 9 hours. If asked the average number of hours of sleep a Rafflesian teenager gets, I believe 6 would be an appropriate estimate. Lack of sleep drastically reduces the quality of work of teenagers, and also undermines whatever education systems that are in place because the students will be hard-pressed to adhere to them. Therefore, it is my conviction that lack of sleep is a huge barrier to a teenager’s success in life, and I maintain that measures must be taken to change this situation.
I shall end off with a particular phrase from the article which caught my eye:
Technology has enabled us to travel faster, communicate faster and prepare food faster, but no one has discovered a way to sleep faster.
(500 words)
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