They see sleep deprivation as a minor annoyance to be overcome. They don't realize that any sleep deprivation results in impaired performance. Teens have no idea how much sleep they require, says Ronald Dahl, a pediatrician and director of the Child and Adolescent Sleep Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Our culture doesn't give kids much information on the importance of sleep. Also, society keeps nibbling away at the time kids have for snoozing.
Teens have a tremendous number of academic, extracurricular and social pressures.
We don't want them to give up anything that they are currently doing, so we have them take it off their sleep period. He knows he's sleep-deprived, but he has too much going on in his life to do anything about it. He keeps a busy school and social schedule and is working hard to get into a top-notch college. I'm pressured to do so many things that sleep seems like a waste of time. He says his friends constantly talk about how tired they are.