Experts say lack of sleep can have detrimental effects for students
Above, Jared Keslar stays up until midnight some days to catch up on homework after an evening full of extra curricular activities.
Submitted Photo
Connellsville Area Middle School student Kadie Keslar is heavily involved in school cheer as well as competition cheer.
Above, Valerie Bowman takes part in a production of Wicked with the C Glee troupe.
With sports and other physical activities scheduled in the evenings, a heavy homework load and devices a constant sidekick, one local health expert warns “we have created a world that teenagers weren’t meant for.”
Dr. Richard Kucera, a pulmonologist and sleep expert with Excela Health, said recently that teenagers need eight to 10 hours of sleep a night, and that can be hard to come by.
Indian Head resident Liz Christman Keslar said her children are busy from the time they wake up until late in the evening, when they go to bed.
“My daughter (Connellsville Middle School student Kadie Keslar) does competition cheer and tumbling in Perryopolis as well as school cheer and can usually get to bed around 10 p.m. normally,” said Keslar. “My son (Connellsville Area High School student Jared Keslar) wrestles year round, with practices two days a week in Murrysville. On these nights, he usually doesn’t get home until 10:30 p.m. and if he has homework to finish up, he isn’t getting to bed until about 12:30 a.m.”
Living in the mountain area, the siblings catch the bus at 6:25 a.m., with Keslar noting that they are one of the last ones to be picked up on the bus route.
“Most times, Kadie gets up around 5 a.m. but on the days she has to stay up later to finish homework, she will come home from school the next day and just crash for an hour before it’s time to head out to her activities,” Keslar said. “Jared tends to have a little more stamina, but does take catnaps in the car between activities if he’s able to.”
But if you ask the kids, both say that sacrificing sleep to be part of their respective activities is totally worth it.
“I can get moody in the mornings if I don’t get enough sleep, but it doesn’t affect my participation in classes,” said Kadie Keslar. “I would totally choose doing competitive cheer and giving up some sleep. I just love it so much. I love the teamwork and the environment.”
Jared Keslar said his body is just conditioned to function with little sleep.
“When I was a little kid, I always stayed up late, so I guess I’m just used to it,” he said. “It never really affects my personality. The only time I really get moody is when I’m hungry. I would absolutely choose being a part of wrestling than having the opportunity to get more sleep each day.”
Valerie Bowman, a senior at Connellsville Area High School, is heavily involved in her church’s choir, bible quiz team, and youth group. She also participates in the color guard for the Connellsville marching band, is on the prom committee, involved in the German club and takes part in the high school musical every year. This year she’s also part of the senior class play.
Outside of church and school, Bowman takes voice lessons, participates in a theater group called C Glee and sings in a choir called Bellas.
“On Monday’s I have senior class play practice until 4:45 p.m. and then every other week I have Bellas rehearsals from 4:30-5:30 and then I go home and do homework,” she said. “Lately, I’ve had a ton of homework.”
On Tuesdays and Thursdays she has band from after school to 4:30 p.m. if it’s at the school or 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. if it’s at the stadium. Throw in senior class play after school if she can swing it and youth group at church from 5-7 p.m. and choir practice from 7-8:30 p.m. and her Tuesdays are completely filled.
On Wednesdays, voice lessons go from the end of school to 3:30 p.m. and then a rush back to the school for senior class play practice until 4:45 p.m.
Finally, on Fridays Bowman goes home to get ready for the football game. If it’s a home game, she gets home around 10 p.m., but if it’s an away game, she doesn’t get home until about 11:30 p.m.
On school days, the senior goes to bed between 10:45 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. and gets up at 5:30 a.m. so she can leave for school around 6:30 a.m.
“I am usually very tired and lately I’ve been exhausted,” Bowman said. “Being tired really does affect me in school because I feel like I’m go to fall asleep, and I don’t have any concentration or focus. I never really have time to nap.”
She added that she thinks it’s worth it being very involved, but it can also be stressful and “really take a toll on you.”
Dr Krista Boyer, a psychologist with Connellsville Counseling Services, said after newborns, teens need the most amount of sleep.
“A teen’s brain isn’t fully developed yet, so I think that’s one of the big reasons that sleep is so important – a lot of brain development is happening while they’re sleeping,” she said.
Also, there’s a biological shift with melatonin around this age, where teens naturally don’t feel tired until later, around 11 p.m., so it’s natural that they want to fall asleep later and get up later.
“There is a lot of research out there that show teens should have a later start time when it comes to school,” Boyer said. “An eight or nine o’clock start time is really ideal.”
She added that research shows that when teens start school later, they make better grades, the amount of late and sick days decrease dramatically and the number of adolescent-involved vehicle accidents drops significantly.
“With the earlier start times, it’s hard enough to do well in your earlier classes on a regular basis, but if one of those subjects is one that you struggle with normally, it’s going to be very tough for the student to achieve good grades,” Boyer said.
Kucera said teens are overscheduled in the evenings with a myriad of activities, but homework assignments these days are above and beyond what a teen should have to handle.
A lot of the activities in the evenings are sports practices, dance, karate or some other physically stimulating event, but exercising late can make a person unable to fall asleep, he said.
Kucera said any form of physical activity shouldn’t be done after 6 p.m., if you don’t want it to affect your sleep.
He said that we get sleepy as our body cools and if our bodies get heated up from exercise, games or activities later in the evening, then their body temperatures will not lower fast enough to go to sleep when needed.
Boyer added that teenagers are always on devices, probably more than anyone, and that adds another level of stimulation that makes it hard to sleep.
“Studies show that students who don’t get enough sleep are at a higher risk to use cigarettes and alcohol and are more prone to violence,” Boyer said. “They will also isolate themselves from their peers and will have higher levels of anxiety, which can cause their grades to drop.”
Boyer added that it is also important to be mindful that teenagers who aren’t getting enough restful sleep will be at a greater risk of being involved in a vehicle accident. Drowsy drinking is similar to drunk driving.
And when it comes to sleep or late night studying, Boyer said sleep should be the first priority.
“Most often it is better to get good sleep than to get time in cramming for a test, because the lack of sleep will lend to under performance anyhow,” she said.
The National Sleep Foundation gives the following solutions for teens to try and get more sleep:
n Naps can help pick you up and make you work more efficiently, if you plan them right. Naps that are too long or too close to bedtime can interfere with your regular sleep.
n Make your room a sleep haven. Keep it cool, quiet and dark. If you need to, get eyeshades or blackout curtains. Let in bright light in the morning to signal your body to wake up.
n No pills, vitamins or drinks can replace good sleep. Consuming caffeine close to bedtime can hurt your sleep, so avoid coffee, tea, soda/pop and chocolate late in the day so you can get to sleep at night. Nicotine and alcohol will also interfere with your sleep.
n Establish a bed and wake-time and stick to it, coming as close as you can on the weekends. A consistent sleep schedule will help you feel less tired since it allows your body to get in sync with its natural patterns. You will find that it’s easier to fall asleep at bedtime with this type of routine.
n If you do the same things every night before you go to sleep, you teach your body the signals that it’s time for bed. Try taking a bath or shower (this will leave you extra time in the morning), or reading a book.
n Try keeping a diary or to-do list. If you jot notes down before you go to sleep, you’ll be less likely to stay awake worrying or stressing.