Monday, February 14, 2011
The Lost Hour
I was surprise that while reading the lost hour was how much information we could lose. Teens and adults have difficulty sleeping, I believe because we try to cram things in one day and the more we lose sleep, the more we lose our memory. That was what really impact me while reading the packet. I was also surprised that a study showed that those in 6th grade who did not get enough sleep perfromed at a 4th grade level the next morning. For me, I get about 8.5 hours of sleep so the "lost hour" doesn't effect me but among my peers, I don't really notice anything. I know it's bad, but at this age, it seems normal for a teen to go to bed at like, 1am and I find myself the strange one for going to bed at 9 or 10. But I do see how my peers are tired the next morning and have a hard time concentrating the next day, but eventually they wake up.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sleep
"teenagers should have 9-10 hours of sleep," my mom told me when I was fourteen years old. Since then I've been worried about my health and ever since that day four years ago, I always make sure I get enough sleep.
Teenagers my age and adults don't get enough sleep because according to the articles we read in Psychology class, people have work to finish up and teenagers love to go onto social networking sites such as facebook to chat with friends or even stay up to text with friends. Teenager's brains are also different from adult brains in which a chemicle call melatonin does not take affect until later at night. Melatonin is a chemicle used to make us tired and to tell us when our bodies need sleep and the melatonin of a teenager will take effect until around 8:30 in the morning. It won't be until the teenager is a bit older that the melatonin will take effect earlier in the night.
As for myself and in my house, I'm the rare teenager that goes to be around nine or ten at night. I go to bed before anyone else in my house. My aunt and mom go to sleep around midnight or one in the morning because they work late just to make ends meet. My cousin on the other hand is the last to go to sleep but what he does is chat with friends, text, play video games, and watch TV in his room. During the winter, I find it very difficult to stay awake. My doctor has told me I have a vitamin D deficiency which is why I get very tired in the middle of the day during the winter. During the summer, when I'm outside more I have more energy but during the winter I don't. On weekends, I'll wake up at ten or eleven in the morning but after about two hours I'll go back to sleep for a nap and wake up about four to five hours later. Usually just in time for dinner and then I'll be tired by ten. That's just how my body works.
I go to bed at nine or ten to get enough sleep for the next day. I care a lot about my health, when I go to bed, what I eat, exercise, and so on. I find being awake the next day for school very important and I want to be awake so I can pay attention. No one forces me to sleep at nine or ten, I decided that on my own and since I've been doing that for four years, I really do get tired by nine or ten and I like it.
Teenagers my age and adults don't get enough sleep because according to the articles we read in Psychology class, people have work to finish up and teenagers love to go onto social networking sites such as facebook to chat with friends or even stay up to text with friends. Teenager's brains are also different from adult brains in which a chemicle call melatonin does not take affect until later at night. Melatonin is a chemicle used to make us tired and to tell us when our bodies need sleep and the melatonin of a teenager will take effect until around 8:30 in the morning. It won't be until the teenager is a bit older that the melatonin will take effect earlier in the night.
As for myself and in my house, I'm the rare teenager that goes to be around nine or ten at night. I go to bed before anyone else in my house. My aunt and mom go to sleep around midnight or one in the morning because they work late just to make ends meet. My cousin on the other hand is the last to go to sleep but what he does is chat with friends, text, play video games, and watch TV in his room. During the winter, I find it very difficult to stay awake. My doctor has told me I have a vitamin D deficiency which is why I get very tired in the middle of the day during the winter. During the summer, when I'm outside more I have more energy but during the winter I don't. On weekends, I'll wake up at ten or eleven in the morning but after about two hours I'll go back to sleep for a nap and wake up about four to five hours later. Usually just in time for dinner and then I'll be tired by ten. That's just how my body works.
I go to bed at nine or ten to get enough sleep for the next day. I care a lot about my health, when I go to bed, what I eat, exercise, and so on. I find being awake the next day for school very important and I want to be awake so I can pay attention. No one forces me to sleep at nine or ten, I decided that on my own and since I've been doing that for four years, I really do get tired by nine or ten and I like it.
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