Insomnia: The Battle for a Good Night’s Sleep

Audience: Middle and High School Students

Insomnia affects over 70% of high school students, leaving many exhausted, unfocused, and overwhelmed during the day. Image by Kinga Howard, from Unsplash

Have you ever been scrolling through TikTok at 2 a.m., aware that you have a test in the morning, and yet still unable to fall asleep after putting your phone down? If you answered yes, you’re not alone. At least once a week, more than a quarter of students (28%) fall asleep in class, 22% fall asleep while doing homework, and 14% are tardy or absent from school due to oversleeping. These numbers show the impact that sustained sleep disruptions have on mood, attention, and health. They also reveal a bigger problem: insomnia occurs almost scarily often in high school students. The effects of sleep hygiene on mental health cannot be overstated.

How Does Insomnia Affect You in the Short-Term and Long-Term?What is insomnia? What are the causes of insomnia?

Insomnia is the consistent difficulty to fall asleep or stay asleep. The causes of insomnia may vary in adolescents. School-related demands, social pressures, and anxiety may lead to an overactive brain while attempting to sleep. In addition, many students have inconsistent sleep schedules; they often stay up very late, while still waking up at an early time. These disturbances can disorient one's natural rhythms. Other unconscious factors could allow for these irregularities as well, including biological changes related to the onset of puberty.

How Does Insomnia Affect You in the Short-Term and Long-Term?

In the short term, lack of sleep will limit your brain's performance, reducing your ability to focus and process information, therefore compromising your academic performance. Sleep-deprived teenagers report feeling sad or hopeless twice as often as their peers who are getting enough sleep. A lack of sleep will also inhibit your ability to regulate emotions, which can lead to increased irritability, stress, impaired judgment, and delayed reaction time. It also puts teens at higher risk for dangerous behaviors such as unsafe driving and alcohol use. In the long term, chronic insomnia may damage you in ways you may not realize. It is associated with increased risk for anxiety, depression, autoimmune disorders, weakened immunity, and even heart disease. What can start as occasional poor sleep can snowball into disruption of nearly every part of your life.

What Can You Do to Actually Sleep Better?

The good thing is that sleeplessness is manageable and might even be reversed if the correct methods are implemented. Mindfulness activities like deep breathing, meditation, or writing in a diary can soothe the mind and thus make it fall asleep. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is a science-backed remedy which teaches the brain to relax and fall asleep naturally, allowing an individual to use a non-medicated approach to find sleep. Part of the therapy can also be sleeping hygiene, which includes sleeping and waking at the same time, no use of electronic gadgets at least 30 minutes before bedtime, and sleeping in a cool and dark room, all of which have a strong potential of improving one’s sleep.

Conclusion

In the world of high school, getting by on a minimum amount of sleep is often romanticized and treated like a badge of honor, something to boast about to a peer and prove one’s status. While a cultural norm, it is important to realize that sleep is not optional - it is your hidden weapon for vitality, self-esteem, and concentration. Yet, the importance of rest is still massively underrated. With the right sleep habits, you can reclaim your nights and wake up ready for your days.

Bibliography

American Academy of Sleep Medicine. (n.d.). Why teens need more sleep. https://sleepeducation.org/teens-and-sleep/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, September 8). Teens and sleep. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/features/teens-and-sleep.htm

Morin, C. M., & Benca, R. (2012). Chronic insomnia. The Lancet, 379(9821), 1129–1141. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60750-2

National Sleep Foundation. (2021). Teens and sleep statistics. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/teens-and-sleep