How Your Sleep Schedule Affects Your Academic Level And Work Ethic

Sleep is something that today’s teens don’t get much of. Whether it’s the new show you stayed up to watch or the homework that kept you up, the eight to ten hours of recommended sleep is rarely achieved. Sleep deprivation can take a toll on your mind, slowing the ability to make decisions, reaction time, and judgement. All these are important aspects of the school day. Quizzes, tests, discussions all require the aforementioned cognitive skills, and when sleep deprived you might find that your usual level of academic performance is down. This can be fixed by something as simple as a quick nap, but in the long run, more physical and mental effects come forward. Whereas some of the dramatic effects include paranoia, hallucinations, and memory loss, more subtle ones show in easy temper, mood swings, and tiredness. It has been found that people who lacked sleep reported being negative about the future and high levels of stress. Both of those can affect someone’s mental health, which then affects motivation

and work ethic. Work ethic - the determination and dedication towards one’s job. Naturally, when you are constantly tired, have mood swings, the enthusiasm slows and that is followed by the loss of work ethic. When talking about sleep schedules, it’s important to emphasize oversleep. Most teens, who have to wake up early during weekdays, compensate for the lost sleep on the weekends. Oversleeping causes headaches, depression, dizziness, and many more. Some of these might interfere with homework on weekdays, and some can last until school starts and you’re faced with another day filled with schoolwork and tiredness caused by oversleeping. Out of 122 GZAAT students, 60.7% said they felt sleepy, dizzy, or tired during classes. 33.6% of them said they only sometimes felt like that. If you add that up, 94.3% of them have felt unfocused during class. Because the majority of them listed the lack of sleep as the reason for that, the importance of getting proper sleep is once more shown. If you’re having trouble sleeping, some of these tips might prove useful in fixing your sleep

schedule. Make sure your mattress and pillows are comfortable. If your bed isn’t the epitome of comfort for you, then falling asleep will be harder. Controlling the temperature in your room is a must. Too cold will refresh your brain and too hot will make you uneasy. Remove any light sources from the room, like drawing the curtains, shutting off the nightstand lights and turning your phone off. Some of the earth’s biggest disasters,

Consequences of Sleep Deprivation

take the Chernobyl nuclear explosion and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, have been a product of human sleepiness. It is important for school students to get enough sleep to prevent disasters, maybe not as big as Chernobyl, but to make the school day easier.

Edited by Liza Jariashvili