Do teen’s get enough sleep?

A lot of people ask “Do teens get enough sleep?”  They say yes and they say no but the truth is that teens don’t get enough sleep. I’ve interviewed multiple people who have very interesting and similar opinions about whether or not teens get enough sleep like Trenton Linn, a freshman at Pahrump Valley High School, Michael Moorehead, also a freshman at Pahrump Valley High School, and my dad, a 46- year- old veterinarian named Adam Hadland. 

Some questions I asked were if they think teens get enough sleep and Linn says that he thinks they do not because of the recent and large upbringing of electronics, schoolwork, and too much coffee late at night. When I asked my dad he also said no, because of the blue light coming from electronics that keeps teens up and he also said teens have a natural urge to stay up. Another thing I asked was how long they think teens should sleep for and the answers were a little different but Linn said that he thinks teens should get at least 7 hours of sleep so they can function in the morning and at school. Moorehead and my dad said both say 8-9 hours of sleep because teens need a lot of sleep for growth and brain development. Linn directly says he doesn’t get much sleep because “why should I spend my life sleeping if I can stay up at night doing stuff.”

Besides the interviews, there are multiple studies from scientists and doctors stating that teens should get at least 9-12 hours of sleep. From personal experience, being 14 and almost 15, I know that teens don’t get enough sleep because we tend to stay up playing video games, doing homework, or just doing anything that is even sort of fun. Another fact that I have is the other day I went to the doctor to get my physical completed for basketball and my dad had asked how much sleep teens should get so my doctor said that teens should get 9-12 hours. In an article I found from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital even they say teens are notorious for not getting enough sleep. In the article, they specifically state that after puberty there is a biological shift in a teen’s internal alarm causing them to stay up later so that means someone before puberty who used to go to bed at 8 pm would end up staying up to around 10 or 11 pm after or during puberty. Even getting too much sleep can be bad for a teens health, possibly putting them at a higher risk of getting diabetes or chronic diseases and their mental stability. 

In conclusion it is true that teens do not get enough sleep because of multiple things like electronics, homework, and puberty. Although teens need quite a bit of sleep it is still important that parents have enough trust in their teen’s responsibility for getting to bed in an early manner so they don’t put more stress than there already is on their kids.