Sleep deprivation is a very serious condition in which someone, in this case a teenager, is lacking sleep. Lack of sleep can lead to moodiness, changes in behavior, and drowsy driving. Sleep deprivation can also lead to problems with attention, memory, decision making, reaction time and creativity. Sleep deprivation is a problem that negatively affects teenager’s ability to perform well in school, as well as their participation in extracurriculars, and also their health.

During their four years of high school, students are loaded with homework that differs each night and is very unpredictable. One student stated,”On average I get four hours of sleep a night with the amount of homework I get. I go to bed around 2:30 and I’m woken up around 5:30 to get ready for school. Sometimes, I almost start to fall asleep during class. The amount of sleep I get makes me stressed and my grades have been affected by the amount of sleep I get each night.” The average amount of sleep teenagers receive is seven to seven and a half hours a night, when they should be getting nine to nine and a half hours of sleep each night. Without enough sleep, teens could be falling asleep during classes, more specifically during tests, they could also wake up late and be absent or tardy, or not finish homework and be affected by that. In order for more problems not to occur more sleep in necessary in teenagers.

One of the main reasons teens don't get enough sleep, besides school obligations including homework, is after school activities. These after school activities usually occur in the evening and include sports, and socializing. Electronics are an important part of a teenager’s daily routine. Texting, looking through and posting on social media, and other popular activities are all examples of what’s involved in a teenagers daily routine. In an article included in the New York TImes, called “Today’s Exhausted Superkids”, Frank Bruni explains how the causes of sleep deprivation are different in an academic community: ”Smartphones and tablets aggravate the problem, keeping kids connected and distracted long after lights out. But in communities where academic expectations run the highest, the real culprit is panic: about acing the exam, burnishing the transcript, keeping up with high-achieving peers.”  The light exposure and the mental activity that goes due to the use of electronics before bed promotes wakefulness. The article also disrupts the natural pattern of the sleep-wake cycle. After school activities can go late into the evening and also make teens extremely tired, except for the fact that if a practice or game ends late and you have a lot of homework left. Teeagers then end up staying up late at night and the amount of sleep they get decreases and decreases. This issue is making teens stressed along with making it harder to sleep at night with all the work and after-school activities that take place. 

One of the most vexatious effects of sleep deprivation is the toll that losing sleep takes on one's health. Teens who experience loss of sleep become moody, irritable and cranky, along with having a difficult time regulating their mood. Sleep is vital to a teenagers well being. It can help you eat better, and manage the stress of being a teen. After puberty, there is a biological shift in an adolescent's internal clock of about two hours, meaning that a teenager who used to fall asleep at nine will now not be able to fall asleep until eleven, also meaning waking up two hours later in the morning. This means it's natural to not be able to fall asleep before eleven. Teenagers function best with eight to ten hours of sleep, but will always have irregular sleep patterns. Health is essential to everyone but especially teenagers trying to further themselves.

Today, teenagers are running around exhausted and sleep deprived, overworking themselves until the point where they are overwhelmed. To avoid the problem of sleep deprivation maintain a regular sleep schedule, avoid oversleeping on weekends, take early afternoon naps, turn off electronics, avoid caffeine, smoking, alcohol and drugs. Another possible solution is delaying the time of the start of school for at least a little bit, so that teens can get extra time to sleep. Another solution is reducing the amount of homework given so that teenagers are not overwhelmed with the amount of homework they have to do. This condition may seem minor but has a big impact on the life of a teenager.