The importance of SLEEP
By: Ella Coxe
Okay, let's face it. Teenagers are so wrapped up into their smartphones and their computers that they spend most of their time up at night on them, while they should be sleeping. This messes up your sleep cycle, which can lead to some pretty bad things. Keep reading to find out why sleep is important to you, and what could happen if you don't get enough sleep. Sleep also sends you into your Altered States, which is when your perceptions are different than normal.
Able to Focus More and Retain Information Quickly
So let's imagine that you have a test in your biology class. You studied last night for a while, but then you watched Netflix until 3am, leaving you with less than 4 hours of sleep until you had to get up. Your in the middle of your biology test, and you read the first question. You remember studying this last night, but quickly your mind wanders off to thinking about what your going to wear to Anna's party this weekend. You snap out of your thoughts and go back to the biology question. It takes you a while to remember how many divisions meiosis has. Your lack of sleep last night caused you to loose your focus and it took longer to remember your answer!! This is an example of Pre-Consciousness,you know the infomation but it's not active at the moment, because you didn't sleep very much last night. you need to focus on one stimuli (Selective Attention), so you need to get more sleep. It also increases your Consciousness to your surroundings.
Studies show that teenagers that sleep more tend to do better on their tests
Helps Reduce Acne
Every teenager wants a clear and smooth face, not one full of acne. Get this: lack of sleep can INCREASE acne! When you don't have a steady sleep schedule and stay up all night, your insulin increases. Insulin resistance can increase glucose or sugar that is one of the major causes of acne, which can cause you to break out more. So maybe, sometimes it is better to be unconscious in your sleep so you have less acne. Nobody wants a face full of pimples and blackheads!
Builds Up Our Immune System to Fight Diseases
The more you stay up all night watching Grey's Anatomy, the more your immune system will become less resistant to fighting off those colds and yucky diseases. We need more sleep to help our body charge back up and our immune system to charge up . It makes it so much easier for the virus's to get into your body and take over because your immune system is tired and can't fight at their maximum speed. It's much better if you have a Circadian Rhythm (biological patterns that repeat) so your body can get used to your sleep schedule and can recharge as much as it needs to during those hours.
Making People Less Grumpy and More HAppy
And the most important, sleep makes us happier!! WHo doesn't love being happy all the time? More sleeps leads to less grumpiness in teenagers. REM is associated with dreaming, which if you're dreaming, it means you're in a deep sleep which is good, becauase it should lead to more sleep.