An enigma, wrapped within a puzzle comes to mind when thinking of sleep. Sleep is not a tangible object that can be caged and studied. It is more of a concept to be understood. An animal can live without sleep just as long as it can survive without eating (Dahl 354). This fact points out just how important sleep is when considering it a necessity, equal to the necessity of eating. One th

Sleep deprivation has showed its power in our society by keeping a constant hold on its people. A cause of this deprivation of sleep can also be pointed at the phase delay or phase shift as mentioned. When a student goes to bed at ten to eleven o' clock p.m. as his/her body naturally pushes, the time to wake up would be from seven to eight o' clock a.m. However, because of school, and other early morning activities, most teens must wake up at six o' clock in the morning to make their seven o' clock bells (Lamberg 895). This strain on student life alone is abundant, causing countless hours of sleep loss. It would seem to be easy to tell students to go to bed earlier, but this would contradict the biological clock, which has set itself to a specific time later than what would be needed (Lamberg 899).

Unfortunately, the most common sleep disorder among teenagers is a sleep phase shift (Cohen 189). One phase is equal to the normal hours of sleep in which one sleeps in a twenty four hour period, such as, from ten o' clock p.m. to seven o' clock a.m. When this time is cut off to go to school, the phase is shifted into another time (Cohen 190). This shift is also known as a phase delay (Bates 32). It is similar to what travelers call jet lag, when the body readjusts to the times in a new setting. At the turn of adolescence, night sleep changes in stage III and stage IV of NREM sleep with a decrease in the time spent in each stage (Cohen 187). This means a biological decrease in the deep stages of sleep that leave one refreshed and rejuvenated. The problem in this is that older people do not get enough of the "good sleep" and have to spend more time sleeping. Many studies are now being produced to show this, and stress the importance of additional sleep. The University of Chicago preformed a study that showed a relationship between teens that get fewer than four hours of sleep a night, and an added risk of various disorders such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and memory loss ("Lack of Sleep..." 29). A sleep researcher by the name of Eve Van Canter had to say, "People try to sleep as little as possible and do as many things as possible, but our study is telling us that chronic sleep loss may increase the severity of widespread age-related chronic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cognitive defects ("Lack of Sleep..." 29)." The aspect of sleep affecting our health is a real issue that most Americans face. In the end, a healthy body needs a multitude of hours in rest. Ms. Canter's statement shows how sleep can have dangerous effects on our lives when we do not do it responsibly.

For teens, this problem is a major concern. In the pursuit to educate, we often seem to dismiss those students who tend not to do so well, and who fall asleep. Melatonin, the biological clock chemical that induces sleep, has been found in high levels among active teenagers in high school (Brownlee 54). In addition, school is not a stimulating environment to all students, and boredom makes sleepiness apparent (Swanson 96). This leaves students in a battle to combat tiredness in the day (Cohen 5). Some students resort to hyperactivity and difficult behavior in class (Cohen 5), while others respond with silliness, impulsive behavior, and depression (Dahl 354). These behaviors complicate and disrupt classroom learning for all students.

The Lack of REM specific sleep has been shown to lower alertness, and reaction time (Brownlee 54). This could be a cruc

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Approximate Word count = 2340
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)