Sleep, an important thing most teens and adolescents don’t get enough of.  With seven hours of school, sports, a job, and homework, teens are sleep deprived.  If that isn’t enough, when they finally get to bed, they check their phones and watch T.V, which further ruins their sleep.  Then, when the weekend arrives, they sleep in, sometimes until the afternoon to pay off all the sleep debt that was accumulated during the week. Sleep debt comes from when there is a big gap between how much sleep teens should be getting versus how much they really get. The effects of having more sleep debt accumulated can include mental and physical fatigue.    

The effects of sleep deprivation are similar to the results of sleep debt. According to research, sleep deprivation causes the brain to not retain information and this causes the brain to not grow to its full potential. This is especially dangerous for teens because they need to absorb all the knowledge they get from school to succeed. According to ScienceDirect, when the body is deprived of sleep, alertness, memory, perception, and attention is declined.  This can cause low tests scores in school.

Below are three tips to help go to sleep and stay asleep.