Bedroom gadgets lead to "junk sleep" in teens
The UK-based Sleep Council warns that teenagers who fall asleep with the TV, music, or computer on suffer from "junk sleep" -- poor-quality rest that doesn't get into the depths necessary to scour away the day's stress -- and suffer as a result:
And although many adults claim that they fall asleep more easily with the TV on, it doesn't always work the same way for kids. One in five of all the teenage boys surveyed admitted that leaving the TV or computer on was affecting the quality of their sleep.LinkThe teens aren't exactly bouncing back from the poor quality sleep, either. 40 percent of the group reported feeling tired in general each day, with 15- and 16-year-old girls doing even worse. But despite this realization, only 11 percent of teenagers surveyed felt that quality of sleep was important. "I'm staggered that so few teenagers make the link between getting enough good quality sleep and how they feel during the day," Edinburgh Sleep Centre's Dr. Chris Idzikowski said in a statement. "Teenagers need to wake up to the fact that to feel well, perform well and look well, they need to do something about their sleep."
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Many self-destructive depressed adults say they sleep better with the TV on.
Uh yeah, not so much. I'm 17 and of course don't sleep a lot, but that's because the school schedule seriously messes up my biological clock.
Also who can go to sleep with all these Wikipedia entries!
That's actually true from personal experience...it can get hard to put the computer down when there are intertubes to spelunk. On the other hand, noise/murmuring machines can help me get to sleep.
17, sleeps 6 hrs/night avg.
...As one who's been sleeping with the radio or the TV(*) on since he was ~9 years old, I've found that as I've gotten older, having the noise going in the background now tends to make my sleep not quite as "restful". Apparently there may be something to the need for the brain to be cut off from auditory stimulation during sleep, so as to allow the brain more focus on clearing out all the junk/data/experiences accumulated during consciousness and either discarding it, filing it away for future reference, or recycling it into that dream/nightmare that you're about to have because you ate one more spicy meatball than you should have before you went to bed.
...But then again, I've also noticed that I *do* get to sleep quicker if something's playing in the background. The solution is a lot simpler these days, what with our computers, DiVX/XViD, and MP3's. Just load your player with about 2-3 hours of media, make sure REPEAT is unchecked, turn the volume down low, hit PLAY, and doze off. So, when the playlist is finished, your brain has peace and quiet and can flush your brains out as it's designed to do without interruption. At least, until the alarm goes off a few hours later.
CAVEAT: Make sure all the songs/movies/shows in your playlist were recorded with the same volume level. Nothing's more annoying to your sleep cycle than having one show suddenly come on and go blaring at 3x the volume of the rest of the shows on the list. Which is, of course, why we hate loud commercials in the first place, natch.
(*) Since the Sign-Off and the Test Pattern after midnight became extinct, natch.
Huh? "Teenagers need to wake up....to do something about their sleep."
I tend to have too much to do or too much on my mind to sleep well. When I'm not deep asleep, I'm thinking of things I have to do the next day and I make sure my alarm clock is set to the right time. Or I'm worried that I'll feel tired in the morning and not get things done. In the rare occasions I do sleep without my mind interupting and I don't wake up, I tend to feel as if I haven't slept at all. That I went to bed a minute ago and all of the sudden, I have to wake up... and I feel even more tired. I also have to wake myself up every hour starting at 5 or so, for my body to register that I have to get up in a few hours. It feels nesessary to have a warning. But, no one cares how I sleep! lol. Just I agree, at my age, I feel tired a lot. It's not about knowing I need quality sleep, it's about achieving it.
Female, 16.