Getting enough sleep is an important part of keeping good health. However, it isn’t always attainable. As a high school student, I can attest to the lack of sleep us teenagers get over the school year... and pretty much all the time. But many adults also don’t get enough sleep. According to a recent poll, about one-fourth of American adults say they get a good night’s sleep only a few nights a month or less. These people are suffering from a sleep disorder known as insomnia, defined as persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep. The amount of sleep a person needs varies with age. School-aged children and teenagers usually need at least 9 hours of sleep per night, and most adults require 7 to 8 hours per night. The most recent study by the National Sleep Foundation suggests that adults should get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night, and yet Americans now average fewer than 7 hours. Getting enough sleep may be difficult when school and work demand early wake up calls. At the same time, we might stay up late during the weekends to enjoy festivities. But a consistent deficit of even 1 to 2 hours a night can have a significant impact on our health. Some of the effects of sleep deprivation include anxiety, obesity, hypertension, memory impairment, and, if severe and extended, may even result in death. But among the most common results of a prolonged lack of sleep is diminished performance. To get a feel of what our sleep patterns reveal about how we feel throughout the day, I created a sleep poll, recording the responses of 95 subjects. 86 were 17 or younger, and 9 were 18 or older. 54.74% of the respondents only get 4-6 hours of sleep a night and 37.89% only get 6-8 hours of sleep. 3 of the 95 people even get less than 4 hours of sleep. On the other end, only 4 of the 95 get over 8 hours of sleep. Of the 9 adults only 3 are getting the right amount of sleep. As for the 17 and younger crowd only 4 out of the 86 are getting enough sleep. Yet 89.47% of the subjects overall are aware of how much sleep someone their age should be getting. Finally, 80.00%, the majority of the subjects, showed that they feel drowsy throughout the day. These results verify that not getting enough sleep take a negative toll on our daily lives. As can be seen, good sleep is important to our health. So remember to get the right amount of rest. Sleep tight!
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