Do you get enough sleep?

Lena Cao, Lc206@uakron.edu

How many hours of sleep do you get on a daily basis? According to sleepfoundation.org, the recommended hours of sleep per day for a typical 13-18-year-old is 8-10 hours. A national poll showed that more than 87% of U.S. high school students get less than the 8-10 recommended hours of sleep. On average, I only get 7 hours of sleep per day and I could not imagine getting 8-10 hours of sleep every single day.

Sleep is important and in today’s generation, many of us suffer from sleep deprivation. This leads to the inability to concentrate, poor grades, anxiety, depression, and many other negative impacts. We typically get 5-8 hours of sleep on school nights and then try to sleep in later on weekends to make up for our loss of sleep, but sleep in on weekends to compensate, but this does not work. There’s something called sleep debt and it can have serious effects.

Sleep debt is cumulative and adds up quickly, let me explain how it works. If you get 6 hours of sleep per night and let’s say you’re supposed to be getting 8 hours, you’re missing out on 2 hours of sleep per day. Multiply those 2 hours by 5 days and that’s 10 hours. Let’s say you go to sleep at 11 PM on a Friday night and wake up at 11 AM on Saturday morning, you get 12 hours of sleep. That’s great, many a little too much sleep, but once you subtract that from the standard 8 hours of sleep you’re supposed to get daily, that leaves you with 4 extra hours of sleep to “pay” back your sleep debt. This cycle keeps repeating week after week until you end up with hundreds of hours of sleep debt. Sleep debt effects aren’t always an increase in tiredness or fatigue, but it could be your body adapting to chronic sleep restriction. Chronic sleep restriction has been associated with an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

How can you improve your sleeping habits?

1. Set a bedtime for yourself! Set a screen time for your phone and electronics, and allow yourself to be off your screen for at least 30 minutes before going to sleep.

2. Increase your sleep time slowly! Every few days add 15-30 minutes at a time until you reach your desired amount of sleep, don’t just skip from getting 6 hours of sleep to 8 hours of sleep in one day.

3. Try taking naps! Naps are not supposed to replace lost sleep but power naps can help you feel more rested for the second half of your day.

4. Don’t start soon, start tonight!