Every morning the front doors of Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School are swung open by yawning teenagers struggling to stay awake long enough to get to their first hour classes. Everyday, students fall asleep during class lectures and most are just hoping they can concentrate long enough to make it through the final bell at 2:40, but why is everyone so tired? What is the culprit of this exhaustion? Social Media. Every night thousands of young adults are loosing valuable sleeping hours to their addiction to communication websites, which is causing issues in their everyday lives.
This generation’s fixation on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and the many others social media websites has begun to occupy majority of their daily attention. The constant need to be updating Facebook statuses or scrolling through the Twitter feed has began to define the current youth.
But what happens when there is just not enough time for social media in the busy life of a high school student?
After a long day at school, a tough workout at practice and a pile of homework many teenagers make poor choices on what to do with their extra time. Instead of the logical decision to climb into bed and get a good night of rest before repeating this rigorous schedule, they are up staring at screens. According to Twiriod, an online twitter tracking system, the majority of users in-between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one are most active on the Twitter site in-between the hours of 10p.m and 1a.m. This means that rather than checking in for the night, many young people are reaching for their IPhones or laptops and taking one last glance at social media.

This communication addiction and poor decision-making has lead to an outbreak in sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is a psychological disorder that negatively affects a person’s behavior, emotion and attention span. It decreases the ability to pay attention, react to signals and remember new information. According to the Nation Sleep Foundation, “Being sleep deprived also increases the risk of being involved in a vehicle accident and raises the probability to struggle with obesity, heart problems, depression and substance abuse”.
Although sleep deprivation might not appear to be a “big deal” , in the lives of busy teenagers sleep is crucial. With the increasing demand of both academic and athletic achievement, being sleep deprived only makes the lives of a growing teenager more challenging. The developing brain of a high school student needs a minimum of eight and a half hours a sleep every night. Since the creation of both Internet and social media, the amount of sleep-deprived students has continued to rise. Within the last year, The National Sleep Foundation found that only 15 percent of teenagers still obtain an appropriate amount of sleep regularly and another 15 percent receive less then 6 hours every night.
Unfortunately, school schedules are not planned around the unhealthy sleep patterns of their students. Even after a night of being up till 1a.m every student is still expected to be awake, in class and ready to learn by 8a.m sharp. These expectations could be realistic for someone coming off of a full night of rest, but for someone with sleep deprivation it takes a great deal of effort to pay attention in early morning classes. Sleep deprived teens are more likely to be late to class and irritable throughout the school day. The loss in the ability to pay attention makes it challenging to understand the material being explained and students become disinterested in listening to the teacher. Being unfocussed can also alter test-taking techniques resulting in bad scores. The effects of sleep deprivation directly affect school performance and simply “being tired” can create a disadvantage to academic success.
In addition to affecting a teenager’s performance as a student, being sleep deprived also influences them as an athlete. Not getting the proper amount of rest makes it more difficult for the body to store a hormone called glycogen. Glycogen is a source of energy needed during endurance activities. The body’s response to a shortage of this hormone decreases muscle performance and quickens fatigue during workouts. Sleep deprivation also reduces the ability to make quick reactions. In most sports, such as soccer and ice hockey, the players with the quickest and most accurate decision-making are the most successful.
Most high school students could not imagine a day without checking the trending hashtags on Twitter and seeing how many “likes” are on their Instagram photos, but is the need to be constantly communicating worth it? With our society’s high demand on academic acceleration and sports achievement, sleep should be more of a priority. Teenagers need to look beyond the screens and realize the importance of a full night’s sleep. So, be healthy and turn it off.