Teens are tired. Scientists decided to see what the potential consequences could be with a lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to many negative consequences, as reported by many recent studies. 

“Chronic sleep loss and associated sleepiness and daytime impairments in adolescence are a serious threat to the academic success, health, and safety of our nation’s youth and an important public health issue,” Dr. Judith A. Owens said in an study on American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) website.

Wendy Troxel is a sleep specialist who has studied the long term effects of sleep deprivation for many years; she describes this issue as an “epidemic.” She believes that school start times are the primary cause of teens not getting enough sleep.

Troxel talked about her studies on a TedTalk on Dec. 1, 2016: “1 in 10 teens get the proper amount of sleep they need.”

According to Troxel, teens are not able to go to bed because their biological clock does not allow them to go to sleep until 11:00 p.m.

On October 15, Ohio Senator Sandra Williams introduced Senate Bill 218: “Ohio public schools would not be allowed to begin their school day before 8:30 a.m.,” according to the Dayton Daily News and ABC6 websites. 

There was a lot of controversy that came with the bill, and as of Oct. 29, the Ohio Legislature has not passed the bill into law.

Some teens in Oakwood argue the issue of sleep deprivation is caused by school start times as well. 

“I think that the school needs a later start time because teens aren’t wired to get up that early,” Anna Porter (10) said. 

Principal Paul Waller argued against this claim.

“I think that Oakwood has a good start time because compared to the other school districts, we have a later start time,” Waller said. “Also, I think that if we were to push the start time back, that could be problematic for extra curricular activities.”

Others would argue that the issue is caused by the amount of homework that students get daily. 

“It’s reasonable to want to do your best, but with the amount of things that you have to do your best on, [the amount of homework] is unreasonable and causes a lot of students to either be sleep deprived because they’re actually doing homework or they’re up late stressed or they’re studying, whenever they should be getting sleep.” Sophia Spowart (9) said. 

No matter what the argument is, with teens not getting enough sleep, there will be negative consequences that will affect them for the rest of their lives. 

“Getting a lack of sleep can lead to narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, or sleep apnea,” according to the National Sleep Foundation website. 

Doctors highly encourage some change to the school system, whether that be to the start time or the amount of homework assigned.

“Inadequate sleep will result in problems with attention, memory, decision making, reaction time, and creativity, all of which are important in school,” according to  the Nationwide Children’s Hospital website.