Sleep Cycles

Teenagers today have a big problem. It's the amount of sleep they get. Teenagers are supposed to get between 9 - 9 1/2 hours of sleep. However most of us, me included get around 6 hours every night. This is a big problem because it affects our mood the next day, our ability to function, and our overall health. Even though there are many factors that contribute to this issue, in my opinion the main issue is media.
Image result for sleeping teenagerMedia is everywhere we go, there is no escaping it. Even just going on your phone for a few minutes before bed can turn into a 2 hour session of scrolling through your Instagram feed. It's amazing to think about how intrigued we get to different types of media. Youtube is an example of this. In my own experiences I will stay up past 2 am watching random videos on Youtube simply because they popped up in my "Up Next" tab. 

As time has gone on and I started to face the consequences of getting less sleep, I try to limit my phone use around bed time because I know it'll lead to me staying up past 12am. However, there are still some nights were it'll happen. And I always wonder to myself why this happens. I have realized that it all comes back to media. Media intrigues us to where we will spend hours watching a video just to see the outcome. This is an aspect of media that if not addressed by the public, will harm the health of our youth population. 

Comments

  1. Devin CMay 4, 2019 at 12:20 PM

    I agree with everything stated in this post. Even if I don't personally use Instagram, the surrounding aspect of social media still creeps up in my YouTube feed. It's not surprising to know that, of course, social media is designed to be this way. If you think about it, it's a brilliant business scheme, and big companies like Google and Facebook are essentially just advertisement-selling companies. Sure, the fact that you can find videos made by people from all around the world without getting out of your bed is really cool, but what does Google make off of it?

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  2. Lindsey ShintakuMay 6, 2019 at 8:41 PM

    I feel as if our generation has become attached to media in some sort of way. I myself am guilty of spending so much time on media where my sleep schedule is messed up. Although media may be a bad thing because it cam effect one health it can also be used for good. In the use I use media I use it to where it affects my sleep schedule and my health. Some can just use media to keep up to date. So in all it is how much you overall use media and that determines medias negative or positive affect

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  3. Lauren WilliamsMay 6, 2019 at 10:47 PM

    I think a big issue with social media is that it essentially acts as a black hole. Once you go on a social media platform, you get pulled into it. It is difficult to stop yourself because media is created to intrigue people and keep them interested. When I'm using YouTube, it seems that I'll start on one type of video and find myself on something completely different hours later. Another issue that arises from this is that it is difficult to fall asleep afterwards sometimes because the blue light from the devices makes our body produce less melatonin which will impact our sleep cycle negatively.

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