What To Do About Teen 'Junk Sleep' Syndrome
What if I told you about a dangerous virus spreading through high schools and middle schools, a virus that now infects between a quarter and a third of the teen population.
The symptoms of this virus include exhaustion, depression, irritability, decreased creativity, reduced socialization, acne, poor performance, degraded immune functioning, aggressiveness and the inability to handle complex tasks.
If left untreated, the symptoms last for years -- well into adulthood -- and can ruin grades, reduce educational options, damage self-esteem, stunt growth, encourage drug and alcohol use, and dramatically increase the likelihood of car accidents.
And what if I told you this virus was preventable and, once contracted, treatable. As a parent, would you do nothing about it?
Here's the shocking part: Such a virus does exist, and most parents do nothing about it -- neither do schools, doctors nor society at large. The virus is teen technology culture, and it's causing serious harm to a WHOLE GENERATION OF KIDS.
5:29 PM * PERMALINK * 3 comments
Comments:
Interesting article, but I wish you'd cite more sources related to your solution. You cite a few sources to describe the problem, but your solution doesn't seem to have been tested, and I really think you doubt the resourcefulness of kids to get around the kinds of restrictions you suggest.
Not to attack you, but the article comes off as "ZOMGCRISISLISTENTOME" and there really doesn't seem to be a whole lot of research for your solution going on.
I agree with Chris. This article makes a central claim, namely that teens are losing sleep due to distractions made exceedingly available by way of new technologies.
But no evidence for this claim is presented. Evidence is provided for the adverse affects of sleep deprivation (e.g. the UC Berkeley study), but no evidence is provided that these new technologies are to blame. It may seem a reasonable conclusion based on personal experience, but this is not science based.
Any ailment or social ill (e.g. "virus") which is described exclusively in terms of the visible symptoms, with no reference to verified root causes, is simply an opinion. The word "syndrome" means that only visible patterns of behavior are present. Not the root cause.
So as Chris noted, one cannot move to design, let alone implement, an effective solution or corporate policies, until the causes are proven.
this is an interesting article. it is very true in most cases of teens lives.
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