Driving home from school midday I have jerked awake to friends nudging me and repeating my name to tell me the traffic light had changed far too many times. It came to my attention that I drift off at the wheel dangerously often. Maybe not for the reason you would suspect. As a result of having the schedule of a busy young adult I quite frequently neglect to get even close to a sufficient amount of sleep. I am one of many young adults in the present day who suffers from a sleep disorder. Young adults suffer mentally, physically, and emotionally from sleep deficiency and sleeping disorders now more than ever before in this country. This issue has been on the rise for the past few decades. 

Today, three to four million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea, ten percent of Americans have chronic insomnia, and 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from sleep or wakefulness disorders. The National Sleep Foundation has found that self-reported drowsy driving has climbed from 51 percent in 2001 to 60 percent in 2005. (Colton) That information only covers the increase over a four-year span but it is heavily reflected in the number of car crashes documented. Records show that nearly 110,000 injuries and 5,000 fatalities happen every year as a result of sleep related car crashes. Adolescents are affected by this statistic more than any other group. (Colton)

Teenagers in the United States drive everywhere, the odds of a friend or loved one of a high school or college age student being involved in, or causing, a car accident is significantly higher because of this; part of the reason car insurance for young people is more expensive. Not only does the amount of time this demographic spends on the road contribute to this, but the number of hours of commitments to school, activities, sports, jobs, and organizations they have keeps them up the latest. After several consecutive nights of burning the midnight oil, it is very logical that these students become exhausted and groggy when driving. Studies show that driving while sleep deprived is the equivalent to driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.07. 

Decreased ability to focus resulting from sleep disorders impacts more than just road safety, however. Developing brains suffer from irritability, depression, worsened mood, and declined attentiveness when not properly rested. (Troxel) Together these disadvantages inhibit one’s ability to comprehend and process information which really comes into play in the classroom. In 2010 insufficient sleep in adolescence was officially recognized by the American Medical Association as a serious health risk. (Owens) Even a skeptic must admit that at this point it is hard to deny the evidence of the significant impact sleep deficiency disorders pose. This is progress towards the research and attention this growing issue demands. The short-term effects of this have been studied and the most prominent outcomes are weakened memory, cognition, and motivation. These resulting symptoms have been proven to worsen over time. (Kamenetz) Some of the long-term effects include higher risk of car crashes, delinquent behavior, depression, psychological stress, and increased risk of obesity. (Owens)

A large number of students fall behind in class because they are not only struggling to keep their eyes open but they can also barely focus on what the instructor is teaching them. Many of them already have commitments such as sports, clubs, jobs, studying, social events and other obligations to manage, which leaves sleep to often get neglected. Teenagers and twenty-somethings overbook themselves to keep up with the competitive resumes of their peers and fall into the vicious cycle of going to bed late. Unfortunately for these dedicated young people the school system is unforgiving of that. School start times are ridiculously early, which forces students to wake up early no matter what time they began sleeping, making it nearly impossible to meet the recommended eight hours. (Troxel) It makes sense, then that the U.S. National Library of Medicine reports 50 percent of college students suffer from daytime sleepiness and 70 percent attain insufficient sleep. (Hershner) As a college student, when I look around I see almost all of my friends and classmates sipping coffee or caffeinated beverages throughout the day, not just in the morning. Some may argue that it is normal for adult to enjoy a cup of coffee to start their day, which is absolutely fine. However, this excessive caffeine consumption extends long into the evening hours across campuses everywhere. Coffee is not the only beverage sufferers are driven to; teenagers with sleep issues are 55 percent more likely to have used alcohol under the age of 21. (Troxel) To counter their hyperactivity in the evening hours from all of the caffeine, many seek a depressant, such as alcohol. 

Students make up the demographic most significantly affected by sleeping disorders in our country and we see this epidemic happening every single day. Groggily forcing themselves out of bed after a brief three or four hours of sleep, students then turn to binge consumption of caffeine until their bodies function as alertly as they would like, and they then continue bouncing from activity to activity, rushing to complete assignments and fulfil social obligations into the late hours of the night, finally taking an insufficient nap to carry them into the next day where the vicious routine is repeated. A study at Jawbone found that the night owl trait is linked to general intelligence which explains why it is so common at universities. (Kamenetz)

The same study recorded that on 46.2 percent of nights students, in the sample tested, got less than seven hours of sleep. (Kamenetz) Sadly, this habit forms earlier than even that, over 90 percent of high school students in America are chronically sleep deprived. More specifically, 20 percent get under five hours a night. (Gregiore) To put this into perspective, in a team of five classmates working together, one of them is not going to be functioning at his or her full intellectual capacity. The work and dedication that this student has contributed to the group’s project will be less significant than that of each of his surrounding group members. A study of 28,000 high schools found that each hour of lost sleep is associated with a 58 percent increase in suicide attempts. (Gregiore) This is an issue that needs to be resolved. Later school start times is one of the potential solutions that has been heavily debated for years now. 

While requiring high schools and middle schools to start later would decrease the drop rate and increase safety, the opposition suggests that the amount of work to reschedule the bus routes and before or after school care would not be worth the benefits. The “benefits” that side is dismissing includes: higher academic achievement, more pleasant attitudes, less substance use and depression, and fewer car accidents. (Troxel) The pleasantness factor happens to affect family dynamics astronomically. Sleep disorders put a major strain on relationships, including with the people these sufferers reside with. 

Parents get so fed up with their children for not listening to specific things they ask of them, for being moody, and for staying up too late. The first thing that they take away: their child’s cell phone. The first thing that they blame: their child’s cell phone. Interestingly enough, these seemingly irrational parents are right about the root of the problem. Scientific research has proven that mental health problems can stem from mobile phone use. In a study of 4,156 young adults between the ages of 20 and 24, public health researches decided to test the psychological effects of mobile phone exposure. They concluded that high mobile phone use was associated with sleep disturbances as well as symptoms of depression and overuse was associated with stress. These conclusions, in short, verify that excessive mobile phone is officially considered to be a risk factor for young adults. (Thomeé) Participants in this study said the biggest causes of stress pertained to their accessibility. They worried that if they could not be reached, or neglected to respond to messages, they would be perceived as being rude or behaving socially incorrectly. This fear and guilt drove respondents to make themselves available at all hours, allowing their sleep cycles to be disturbed so they could return messages. Scientists and psychologists call this behavioral addiction. Additionally, exposure to electromagnetic fields has been determined to cause headaches, earaches, and warmth sensations. (Thomeé) Combining the physical damage to the psychological from this study alone, we can come to the conclusion that minimizing cell phone usage would certainly be beneficial. If someone who suffers from a sleep disorder manages to decrease their cell phone use, there is a possibility they will get more rest and less stress. 

This seems like a very difficult thing to ask of the generation that grew up around glowing screens and learned to evolve with the technology. An alternative solution to this issue, that is currently in progress, could be to allow physicians and doctors to prescribe sleeping pills to minors. The Food and Drug Administration has not yet made this a legal option in the United States, although it is being seriously considered. 180,000 people under the age of twenty years old in the U.S. reported that they have taken sleeping pills in the year 2004. Most of them were at least 10 years of age. The reason this debate is very controversial is because minors are an extremely fragile demographic, especially when it comes to illegal substances and prescriptions and prescription sleep aids have not been well studied in children. (Duenwald) Based on the data researchers have accumulated in the past fifteen years, 16 to 29 year olds are currently the most sleep deprived demographic. (Colton)

This information has, so far, led a number of physicians to very cautiously argue that it is, in fact, alright to prescribe sleeping pills to children at times when their disorder has been understood and diagnosed so that they can attempt to battle insomnia. Other doctors are concerned that a large increase in sleeping pills prescribed to children may result from neglect to thoroughly investigate the issue. Physicians primarily intend to find whether or not the issue stems from a medical problem and then they decide if medication is truly necessary. A study of pediatricians found that drugs developed for high blood pressure, antianxiety, and antidepressants were the kinds children most frequently are prescribed because they have the ability to sedate. (Duenwald)

Specialists have developed newer pills to regulate sleep for adolescents. The results of these pills will help determine whether or not children may legally be prescribed sleep aids. The new generation medicines have been proven to be significantly less habit forming than the kinds people are used to being sold. (Duenwald) If students have access to these safe, effective sleeping pills there is a much better chance that they will perform better in the classroom, at work, and on the road. This solution would help prevent adolescents from buying, selling, and misusing sleeping pills that were not actually prescribed to them. Considering the alternative is dedicated young scholars miserably dragging through each day exhausted and fatigued, if not buying prescription sleeping pills illegally and misusing them; permitting certified doctors to safely grant them with the help they need is clearly the right choice.

Not only can medicine impact someone who has issues with sleeping, the amount of sleep a person gets can determine their receptiveness to medicines. Intrigued medical professionals decided to further their knowledge of the effectiveness of medications on people who suffer from sleep deficiency. A clinical health psychologist recently conducted an observational study to explore the impact of vaccines on people who sleep less. Scientists hypothesized that they may be less likely to benefit from a vaccine. In order to find out, they gave 125 healthy men and women the hepatitis B vaccination, and recorded the participants’ sleep. The researchers drew the participants’ blood after each shot and concluded that there is a statistically significant variance in the receptiveness of a person who attains the recommended amount of sleep and people who do not. (Bakalar) Their hypothesis was correct: sleep duration influences how a person’s blood takes to the vaccine. 

This information is useful for people with sleep disorders to consider if they are about to go in to their doctor for a shot. They may need to take additional precautions to try to get more rest than usual so their vaccine works as well as it is intended to. Additionally, this can be added to the list of short-term affects as decreased receptiveness to vaccinations. 

Before getting their vaccine, a person with a sleep disorder could try an alternative to cutting back on cell phone time to get more sleep. Another possible strategy could be applied to get these sufferers on a healthier sleep schedule that requires some diligence. Naturally, humans are wired to have difficulty exhibiting self-control and a group of researchers at the University of Kansas wanted to explore ways to increase people’s self-restraint. Because exercise is known to have considerable psychological effects they conducted an experiment this year that required the volunteers to fill out a survey about their self-control and then participate in a walking and jogging regimen. Each week the questionnaires were repeated and a month later they came back to be tested. 75 percent of the volunteers gained a substantial amount of self-control, the 25 percent that did not had missed some of the sessions. (Reynolds) 

Participants that stuck with the exercise routine began to exhibit more discipline in other areas of their life, and those results continued. Observed changes were found in their diets and work habits. (Reynolds) Because people who had struggled to demonstrate self-control regarding their eating and exercise habits noticed improvement through routine and disciplined exercise, perhaps this strategy could be apply to a person who suffers from a sleep disorder.

 In the past century Americans’ sleep has decreased by 20 percent. (Colton) Food, cars, technology, and tools have all evolved and developed to such an extreme in those past 100 years. All of those things work to convenience and enable us as individuals. While they were intended to make us more productive, they can sometimes serve the counter purpose of distracting us and making us lazier people. If people who lack self-control to refrain from using their phones and computers past a certain hour attempt this discipline by exercise theory they may find themselves sleeping earlier and longer. If any sufferer of a sleeping disorder attempts this, they have the possibility to kick the habit of falling asleep late at night. 

Young adults in the United States are particularly known to suffer from sleep disorders in all areas of their life. Mentally, physically, and emotionally it takes a toll on their performance in activities they have committed to, deprives them of their brains full functionality, and strains their relationships. The causes have been primarily traced back to their schools’ pressures and start times, although technological and medical influences are also involved. Fortunately, solutions for this issue have recently begun developing such as better sleep aids for children, and more personal restraint with cell phones and the time they attempt to go to sleep. Hopefully in the future, young adults will have put this issue to bed.  
