Young & Restless: When Sleeping Becomes a Nightmare

Dealing with Sleep Deprivation
Mariah Williams, 16
Massachusetts

As a kid with sleep deprivation, it’s been really hard for me to function from day to day. Sleeping was and still is a big hurdle for me. Now I get help from some medication, but even that doesn’t keep me asleep sometimes. Nights are hard, and with all my tossing and turning, I wonder if I will ever fall asleep.

Before I went on medication, my lack of sleep affected the way I worked during the school day and around the house. My grades weren’t that good and I didn’t want to move or do anything. So I became overweight and stressed out.

After being put on Trazodone, a type of sleep medication, my sleep became better. I also found that I was willing to participate in school and the activities that everyone else was doing. The drug doesn’t always work, though, and I’ve wondered if I should be put on a higher dosage. But my doctors are keeping me on the same dosage and I’m now dependent on taking the pill to put me to sleep. I would suggest finding other ways to get to sleep. If you start taking anything, you may became dependent on it.

Sleep: Just What the Doctor Ordered

Since a lot of teens don’t know the effects of sleep deprivation, Teen Voices decided to get some answers from sleep specialist Dr. Joyce Walsleben, Director of the Sleep Disorders Center and Associate Professor at New York University’s School of Medicine. Dr. Walsleben wrote a book called A Woman’s Guide to Sleep: Guaranteed Solutions for a Good Night’s Rest, and has worked to raise awareness of drowsy driving.

Teen Voices: How do you know when you’re sleep deprived?
Dr. Joyce Walsleben: If you can’t stay awake during a boring situation in the afternoon, you probably have not had enough sleep, or the sleep you got was not of good quality. That is the real test, because everybody is an individual and they need different amounts of sleep.

TV: What are some symptoms of sleep deprivation?
Dr. Walsleben: You slow down, you don’t think well, you can’t remember things, you have a poor reaction time, you concentrate on something that’s meaningless or not appropriate, and you forget or miss important things. Many of our major accidents have been linked to people being sleep deprived.

TV: What is the root of sleep deprivation?
Dr. Walsleben: Generally, it’s that people don’t find the time to go to bed. They think they can just stay up and fight it and be more active, or they have too much to do. It could also be the result of a sleep disorder. [See side bar.]

TV: How many hours of sleep should teens be getting compared to adults?
Dr. Walsleben: Well, they really need nine to ten hours to be sharp. A number of teenagers don’t get that amount because the hormone melatonin, which is a sleep promoter, flows very late at night [for teens] and it keeps flowing until the morning hours. You have to get up for school when you should be asleep, and it’s very tough.

TV: Do you think it’s a good idea to have high school start later in the morning?
Dr. Walsleben: Absolutely. Even an hour later would make a difference, but two hours would be wonderful because that would be perfect for most teenagers. Biologically they would be alert and sharp. We know areas that have done that and the grade point average has jumped up.

Types of Sleep Disorders

Most of us don’t get enough sleep because we stay up too late. Sometimes we’re having too much fun, sometimes we have too much work, and sometimes we just don’t feel like going to bed. But there are also physical disorders that can cause sleep deprivation. Your health care provider can diagnose these conditions, and suggest appropriate treatment.

Insomnia: an inability to fall sleep and/or remain asleep for a reasonable period. Insomniacs sometimes complain of being unable to close their eyes or “rest their mind” for more than a few minutes at a time.

Narcolepsy: an excessive urge to sleep, even after a proper amount of sleep. A person with narcolepsy becomes drowsy without warning and can fall asleep at the wrong time and in the wrong place, for periods as short as a few seconds or as long as an hour.

Sleep apnea: a sleep disorder that’s caused by a pause in your breathing while you’re asleep. These episodes, called apneas, can last as long as a minute and can occur repeatedly throughout sleep. A person with apnea can’t breath properly, so their sleep is interrupted.

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