I'm Tiredd

            Lately, I have been very tired so I decided that maybe I should be getting more sleep.  At the same time, many nights I just cannot sleep when I try to force myself to bed knowing how tired I am.  I decided to do some research into why this might be and whether I might just be crazy and well I’m at it, I might as well just turn it into a blog post since I still need one for this week.

 

How much sleep are teenagers supposed to get every night?

            According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers need about 9 ¼ hours of sleep per night to be able to function at their best, although for some 8 ½ hours of sleep is enough.  A study by the same group found that only 15% of teenagers sleep at least 8 ½ hours on a school night.

            I know I am only getting around 6 hours of sleep most school nights, so this will explain part of my problem.  Honestly, I don’t know how I am supposed to be able to fit in 9 ¼ hours of sleep every night, but that is what I am supposed to be getting.

 

Why does it seem like I’m not the only teenager not able to fall asleep at night?

            There are actually quite a few sleep disorders I found during my research.  According to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, many teenagers have delayed sleep phase syndrome which is what causes teenagers to want to be a “night owl” when everyone else in their family is going to bed.  This syndrome is believed to be due to changes of the internal clock associated with puberty, and results in lack of sleep among teenagers as school starts earlier.  There are also, more commonly heard of disorders, such as sleep apnea and chronic insomnia.

            The delayed sleep phase syndrome seems to make a lot of sense to me, I used to go to bed really early and now I struggle to fall asleep before 11.  From the amount of activity I see on Twitter late at night, I would also assume that many other teenagers I know suffer from the same syndrome.

 

What are some of the consequences of this lack of sleep many teenagers seem to be struggling from?

1.      Limit your ability to learn and remember things. Yikes! What if I forget where I’m going?  This might explain why I have been forgetting things lately.

2.      Give you more acne.  I am a teenage girl, and this is not okay.

3.      Lead to aggressive behavior.  Does anyone else seem to be noticing my mean streak lately? Just kidding… I haven’t noticed this one lately.

4.      Cause you to eat too much, and gain weight.  Once again, I am a teenage girl, not okay.

5.      Heighten the effects of alcohol and tobacco.  Well I have never done any of this, so I can’t really say too much about this.

6.      Contribute to increased illness.  I’m always sick, so I don’t know about this one either.

 

I have come to the conclusion that I really need to get more sleep, somehow.  I might start taking naps every day after school when I am feeling tired, and then do my homework later on when I can’t sleep anyway.  Have fun sleeping(:
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Bipolar Iowa

                It is cold outside, like really cold.  This week has just had some terrible weather.  Sorry for the people reading my blog, you probably think I complain a lot, but I like the hot weather during the summer.  It has been like negative fifty degrees this week, not really, but still on the wrong side of zero… Well, most of the week.  I am going to invite you to hear about Iowa’s bipolar weather.

            Last Sunday, I woke up and it was just slightly above freezing with rain so not that bad outside for January in Iowa.  By the time I went to bed on Sunday, the rain had turned to freezing rain and the weather had dropped, leaving a layer of ice on all the streets.  Fun, ehh?

            Monday, it began to heat up again and many of the rural Iowa schools did not have school due to the ice and later the fog.  Driving home on Monday night it was difficult to see five feet in front of my car due to the extremely thick fog.  That night, I had trouble sleeping… Because while I can’t sleep during thunderstorms.

            This is the real shocker…. Tuesday morning I woke up…. And it was sixty degrees outside and raining… Actually more like pouring out.  By the time I left school around lunch time for an appointment, it was already forty degrees outside.  You can only imagine what happened as soon as the temperature hit the freezing point.

            I woke up Wednesday morning with 6 new inches of snow, a layer of ice underneath that, more snow falling, and a snow day!!! Yeah, after sixty degrees the day before.  Wednesday was a very long day, stuck inside, not really able to do much of anything.

            Thursday was cold, super cold, and got colder as the day went on.  The same was true for Friday.  Both Thursday and Friday we had two hour delays because, honestly the roads are still really icy and it has just been so cold.  To make the road conditions even better, last night on my way home it was starting to snow again and it is supposed to again tonight.

            Does anyone reading this want to move to Iowa now?  I didn’t think so.  We have some crazy weather here and I want to give kudos to all the people in charge of clearing our streets after these storms and the officers who have been responding to the increase in accidents these last few days.

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February Resolutions

            Lately I have begun to wonder whether it is possible to make February Resolutions, like New Year’s Resolutions…. Personally, I have never even made a New Year’s Resolution; honestly, I know I would never keep them.  However, recently I have made a lot of changes in my life and going into this new month there are some things that I want to change back.

1.      I would love to get rid of my recently acquired, killer procrastination skills.  I know these are some skills that not everyone has, but they have gotten so bad that I am frequently doing my homework the weekend after it is due.  I wouldn’t be so worried about this skill since it has actually been quite nice, but my grades are really starting to reflect this….

2.      Can I sleep more? I think this is something every teenager wants, but I’m a crazy teenager that doesn’t even sleep in on Saturdays.  I go to bed most nights around 11 and during the week get up at 5, and on the weekends around 7.  Basically, this means that during the week I am getting around 6 hours of sleep and I am usually exhausted.  I would like to be going to bed earlier, and I might have to start shutting my phone off at night.

3.      To make my parents happy, I really need to start saving more of my money.  Right now I am living paycheck to paycheck.  If I stop eating out so much, I could probably save about a quarter of every paycheck to put in savings, rather than needing to take money out of my savings two days before I get every paycheck.

 

I guess, I’m not really sure whether it is socially acceptable to make February Resolutions…. I just know that it would be way too long until the time came where I could make some New Year’s Resolutions.  If your resolutions you made aren’t working out, try making some of your own February Resolutions, it might make me feel better about my craziness.

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