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Mass media and adolescents
Academic performance is affected by sleep deprivation
Effects of stress on teenagers
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Recommended: Mass media and adolescents
In Frank Bruni’s response to “Overloaded and Underprepared,” he discusses the expectations of many high school students throughout their career which people view as a “perfect society.” Today, society has high expectations of high school students, which causes students to become stressed due to extracurriculars, jobs, and other organizations they are involved in. Throughout the response, Bruni shows disappointment because of the lack of sleep students receive each night and the stimulants students use to fulfill their goals which helps Bruni get his main idea across effectively. Frank Bruni discusses the perfect society that is expected from many students today and used evidence to explain his main idea clearly and effectively. Everyone wants …show more content…
Generally, grades begin to drop since students do not have time to finish homework, but some students have their minds’ set to achieve perfect grades so they sacrifice sleep and begin to gain more stress. In Bruni’s response, he states, “Sleep deprivation is just a part of the craziness, but it’s a perfect shorthand for childhoods bereft of spontaneity, stripped of real play and haunted by the ‘pressure of perfection.’” Students are so competitive with their grades in today’s society they do not realize how they do not have to be perfect to succeed in life. From experience, I know how competitive students become when dealing with grades, ACT scores, and top ten percent. Although these students are competitive, they show commitment by working hard and never giving …show more content…
When students become depressed, they may use stimulants to get their minds off studies they need to focus on which will endanger mental and physical health even more than just being sleep deprived. If students are not in the correct state of mind, they might assume drugs or alcohol will cure the mental pain they are in because of the amount of stress they have. Unfortunately, alcohol, adderall, and other drugs are commonly used among students who believe they need an extra boost to perform to the best of their ability, so they think these stimulants are the only way to help them accomplish the goals they wish to obtain. If students are intoxicated or on drugs, this could play a role in suicide because these individuals do not understand how much harm they are doing to their
In the essay “College Pressures” by William Zinsser, Zinsser speaks about the pressures and anxiety that plague college students, all the while wishing that they had “a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step.” Referring to the 1979 generation of college students as “panicky to succeed”, he lists four of the following stressors for college students.
The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins is a non- fiction book that follows the lives of nine high school/ college overachieving students. On the outside they look healthy, happy, and perfect, but upon closer look the reader realizes just how manic their lives and the lives of many other high scholars are. It is no secret that high school and college has become more competitive, but the public doesn’t realize just out of control this world is. “Overachieverism” has become a way of life, a social norm. It is a world-wide phenomenon that has swamped many of the world’s top countries. Students are breaking under the immense amount of pressure that society puts on them. They live in constant fear that they will not live up to society’s, or their own, standards. People have put so much emphasis on students to succeed and to outperform their peers, and all before them, that it is changing them, and is having irreversible effects on them.
From the beginning of high school, students strap on their seatbelts and prepare for one of the most vigorous races of their lives – becoming successful. With the rare occurrence of a break, kids are expected to keep on driving as fast and as powerfully as they can in order to get into a “great” college, which would be followed by graduate school and then an actual job that would make a lot of money. In American society, common values include working hard, determination, and being so productive that free time is not even a question. However, this philosophy is taking a major toll on American college and high school students. For at least 40 years, America’s future has been steadily growing unmotivated, tired, and hopeless due to the overemphasis on performing well in school. This phenomenon is appropriately expounded in William Zinsser’s “College Pressures”, which takes a look at the top four sources of tension that cause these feelings of dejection and agitation. After reading this article, I came up with a few solutions to this national problem. It is time to switch the harsh, over-encouraging green light of education to a comfortable yellow one. In order to make this ideal transition, directors of education across the country need to primarily reduce the amount of out-of-class assignments, lighten the grading system, and incorporate days in the school year that allow students to express their thoughts about school and provide useful feedback.
It is true that sleep deprivation is a widespread issue, generally resulting from early start times. It is also a serious one; according to a study by Harvard Medical School, sleep deprivation can lead to issues such as obesity, heart disease, difficulty learning, and can genuinely shorten a person’s lifespan. As Robbins explains, teenagers have a different internal sleep clock than other age groups. It is most healthy for students in high school to go to bed around 11 and wake up around 9. Since school often begins as early as 7, students are told they simply need to go to bed early, around 8 or 9 PM. This contention does not take into account the fact that humans are biologically not wired this way, and it's virtually impossible for most teens to fall asleep this early. It also doesn't take into account that with clubs, sports, church, volunteering, other extracurriculars and hours of homework, students often struggle to start their homework before their suggested “bedtime”. It is contended that students can control their own schedules so that they can get more sleep. However, pressure from parents and peers to get into a “good” college can cloud students’ perceptions of what is right for them, making them choose to overwork themselves in order to build impressive resumes. I myself can identify with this phenomenon. During the weekdays alone, I volunteer two nights a
There have been many instances of suicide that have occurred in the past years at universities across the country, and since it is such a sensitive subject, there have not been nearly enough coverage as this topic deserves, considering this issue does not seem to be going away. When collecting data about suicide statistics, the age range is broken down as people ages 15-24, which spans most developmental years. Within this bracket are college-age students and this age-group has by far the most troubling statistics around it.
Leon Botstein, the President of the Bard College, deals with students every day. In his piece Let Teenagers Try Adulthood he goes through a list of several of the problems in high schools and follows that with a list of possible solutions. One of the main problems that Botstein finds is that students entering his university are rarely prepared. And that
High school students were surveyed about what negative effects they experience when they feel overwhelmed, both in school and at home. “40% of students say they [lost] interest in school and learning” altogether and “35% said they participated less in extracurricular” activities (Powell). Extracirriculars are an essential part of a teenagers high school expirience, but if students cannot handle the high expectations academically, they will not voluntarily add more to their agenda, even if it means giving up something they were once passionate about. There is not enough time for extracurriculars when workloads take up both the days and nights of most high school students. The rumor that once college starts, students should be prepared for sleepless, coffee fueled nights is losing validity; those nights begin in high school. “73% of students [lose sleep due to the high stress levels]” in school. Whether they are losing sleep from anxiety to complete their work or if they actually sacrifice ...
This is also proven by a study, which shows that students who perform worse on their exams seem to be more stressed and suffer from poor sleep quality (Ahrberg, Dresler, Niedermaier, Steiger, & Genzel, 2012). For instance, student A is a freshman at Ball State University. This student only sleeps for 6 hours because of bad sleeping habits and later on he sleeps for only 4 hours because of the new environment which has many factors that affect his sleep schedule such as social life, school activities or extracurricular activities. Then sleep deprivation is starting to affect him. He have a test the next day and studied the whole night and only slept for 2 hours. The next day, while he was having the test, he started to feel very tired, sleepy and stressed. He couldn’t concentrate on the test so he failed the test. He started to feel more stressed because of bad grades which might make him take the course again. He couldn’t sleep for more than 4 hours and these bad cycle repeats. Moreover, high stress could also affect the emotion of the students. It can also cause depression which can significantly decrease the academic performance and grade point average of a student. Stress caused by sleep deprivation can really have a big effect on
Are you curious if those all night cram study hours are working? I bet your wondering if they are actually helping or hurting your midterm grade? I’m sure all of us have spent an all nighter studying for that Chemistry or Economics exam that you just have to do well on because its 50 percent of your grade. Not only are you studying so hard for that A+, but your mental well-being. We all feel pressured to do well in college for many reasons. For that high paying job were promised if we graduate from a top-notch school or what about the assumption that you will have a better future. And for those of you whose parents are paying thousands of dollars for tuition, wouldn’t want to let mom or dad down. The answer is here. June J. Pilcher conducted a study of whether sleep deprivation affects your ability of acing that test if you just would have went to bed earlier.
Many students who feel the pressure to succeed at the high school level have an unhealthy amount of stress. Students who feel this have been cheating, pulling all nighters, becoming depressed, and seeking relief in drug use, and self mutilation. On average in a recent study at Illinois high school students spend 3.07 hours of homework each night on just homework not including extra curricular activities(Jerushapope,2). Also in this high school students reported getting 6.8 hours of sleep each night, but 34.6% reported getting 6 or fewer hours of sleep(Jerushapope,2). Most high school students spend 2 hours of extra curricular activity each night thats not including homework so after those activities you have to come home and do homework and then you will not have a lot of time to sleep. Also most kids do not get a lot of time to spend with their parents during the weeknights. Some kids cannot even make it to the dinner table because they have so much homework and that is not healthy for the parents and their childs relationship. In ...
...in reason why suicides occur. This usually occurs due not enough sleep and thinking too much (overthinking). Multiple sleep disturbances should be told to a doctor or the clinician to carefully ‘evaluate and prevent the persons’ depression and suicide risk’ (Urrila, 2012).
In the past 35 years the suicide rate for college campuses has tripled (Oswalt 1995). This shows that there is a clear need for something to be addressed within the college community. The recent surveys show that about 10-15% of college students are depressed (Lindsey 2009). Depression can be a debilitating illness especially when many students attend college away from their close friends and family. This could result in students with more suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide. In fact, the number of students with suicidal thoughts has tripled over the past 13 years as the number of students seeking help for depression doubled in the same span (Lindsey 2009). Depression can effect these teens in other areas of their life as well. The students who reported that they were depressed also reported that they considered their health fair or poor (Lindsey 2009). In their cases, depression not only effects them psychologically but also physically. Depression is also known to impair psychosocial development and academic success (Lindsey 2009). With all of these factors put togethe...
academic failure, financial stableness, not reaching the goal that is desired and many more. According to the National Association for Suicide Prevention everyone has different reasons for being depressed and the extent of that depression will also vary from person to person. Some common causes of depression that have been found to lead to college suicide are not feeling loved or understood, the feeling of rejection, trouble with friends and family, or the feeling of being “no good”, and not reaching the academic standards (42). Kay Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University said in the Universi...
The feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that accompany depression can fuel a downward spiral of health and self-esteem, which can have potentially deadly results: In one study of teenage suicides, 60 to 70 percent of the teenagers had been diagnosed with a depressive illness prior to their deaths. An alarming 90 percent of the sample had some form of psychiatric diagnosis -- depression, mood disorder, or substance abuse
Are the new standards and expectations the world has for teenagers really creating monsters? The amount of stress that is put on students these days between trying to balance school, homework, extra curricular activities, social lives, sleep and a healthy lifestyle is being considered a health epidemic (Palmer, 2005). Students are obsessing over getting the grades that are expected of them to please those that push them, and in return, lose sleep and give up other aspects of their lives that are important to them, such as time with friends and family, as well as activities that they enjoy. The stress that they endure from the pressures of parents, teachers, colleges, and peers has many physical as well as mental effects on every student, some more harmful than others. The extreme pressure on students to get perfect grades so that they will be accepted into a college has diminished the concept of actually learning and has left the art of “financing the system” in order to succeed in its place (Palmer, 2005).