The A-B-Z's of Sleeping
Ubiq Staff Writer
You wake up to the most annoying sound possible: your alarm. You roll over and hit snooze, and think "ugh, I'm so tired, just five more minutes at least."
Does this sound familiar?
This is what most teenagers go through day to day when they have to get up in the early morning hour for school or work. Teenagers are commonly used to staying up late and then sleeping in until 11 or 12 on the weekends. When Monday rolls around, they are totally beat and have trouble getting up. What parents are calling pure laziness, however, professionals are calling natural. According to Dr. Giedd, of the National institute of Mental Health, daytime sleepiness and late-night sleeplessness is the result of shifts in the sleep cycle as growth hormones kick into high gear. By using magnetic resonance imaging, people can study brain growth in children every two years from ages 13 to 18 years. During the night, growth hormones are released during REM, which is Rapid Eye Movement or "dream sleep."
During dream sleep, electrical activity from the brain stem flows into the rest of the brain, which causes eyes to move back and forth under your eyelids. According to Dr. Smith of Trent University, the more learning that has occurred before sleep, the more intense the eye movements become. Daytime stimulation like school and social occurrences gets so-called "hard-wired" in the brain of teenagers during dream sleep. This means if you cut your dream sleep short, performance suffers the next day.
When you fall asleep, you go through light sleep. About 90 minutes into sleeping, REM occurs and then reoccurs every 90 minutes. During this, you get energy back into the brain and body, your brain becomes active and this is wear your dreams occur. Muscles get turned off, and you become totally relaxed.
Teens need an average of 9.25 hours of sleep each night to be totally rejuvenated for the next day, but the problem is teens have a natural tendency to go to sleep late and wake up later. Most only sleep an average of six hours per night. Teenagers are often complaining about being sleepy during the day, and even falling asleep during classes. If your REM gets cut short, it affects things like muscle repair, memory and the releasing of hormones that regulate growth and appetite.
