Tuesday, November 28, 2017

For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep

Kunzang Namgyal
Mr.Ippolito
AP Biology- EF even
7 December 2017


Prabhune, Meenakshi. “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep.” Science News for Students, 21 Nov. 2017, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teens-good-mood-depends-good-sleep.


I read the article “For teens, a good mood depends on good sleep” by Meenakshi Prabhune. In this article, Prabhune addresses the issue of the amount of sleep teenagers get each night. At this stage of development, teenager’s bodies “want to stay awake later at night and sleep later in the morning.” The issue with this is that school still starts early, making it hard for teenagers to get enough sleep each night to be well-rested for their next day. Missed sleep can make kids more susceptible to mental and physical illnesses as well as drowsy teen drivers, car accidents are the leading cause of teenage death in America. On the contrary, too much sleep can also have negative effects and lead to sour moods. A new study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles has shown results that teenagers feel their best when they obtain between eight and ten hours of sleep. Rafael Pelayo, a sleep doctor at the Stanford Research Center for Sleep Science and Medicine in California, suggests that teenagers should attempt to acquire the same amount of sleep each night and states that “catching up” on sleep over the weekend can be bad for mental health. He compares sleep cycles to appetites, “we don’t starve ourselves of food on weekdays and gorge on weekends… We shouldn't do that with sleep either.” Many schools have begun pushing back their start times, allowing teenagers to acquire more sleep per night.


This issue directly affects a majority of the students at the Bronxville High School and high schools throughout the United States. Many students feel that they do not have enough time to get enough sleep each night, and often sacrifice precious hours of sleep to their school workload. In fact, Rafael Pelayo, a sleep doctor at the Stanford Center for Sleep Science and Medicine in California has estimated that 80 to 90 percent of teenagers do not get enough sleep. Here at Bronxville School we pushed back our start time from 7:50 to 8:20 and it has made a major difference for some students. Teenagers’ moods and performance not only affect themselves and their peers, but their moods also affect the rest of their families, seeing as the way they act towards their family members is often related to their current mood.

Overall, this was an informative article. I believe that Prabhune did a good job of citing credible sources such as Rafael Pelayo and Andrew Fuligni, who studies the mental health of adolescents at the University of California, Los Angeles. However, there were multiple areas for improvement. Prabhune’s article would have left a more effective impact on readers if instead of mainly focusing on how teenagers could get enough sleep, she had also included the negative side effects of acquiring too much or too little sleep. I also wish that Prabhune had described the study performed at UCLA in greater detail, as it would have been interesting to analyze some of the actual data.

4 comments:

  1. AP Bio
    Olivia Scotti
    12/7/17
    Current Event # 10

    Prabhune, Meenakshi. “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep.” Science News for
    Students, 21 Nov. 2017, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teens-good-mood-depends-good-sleep.

    There were many aspects of Kunzang’s review written well. One part of her review that I felt she did particularly well was her description of how varying patterns of sleep affects students. For instance she states how “Missed sleep can make kids more susceptible to mental and physical illnesses as well as drowsy teen drivers, car accidents are the leading cause of teenage death in America. On the contrary, too much sleep can also have negative effects and lead to sour moods.” Through this summary the reader is able to understand the main point of the article that is being reviewed. Also the reader understands details about the effects of lack of sleep and too much sleep. Another part of the review which was done well was the addition of quotes from research on this topic. For example “Rafael Pelayo, a sleep doctor at the Stanford Research Center for Sleep Science and Medicine in California, suggests that teenagers should attempt to acquire the same amount of sleep each night and states that “catching up” on sleep over the weekend can be bad for mental health.” Through this the reader understands what effects of lack of sleep and catching up on sleep can have on the body. This is also allows the reader to understand the tone of the article through direct quotes from the passage. Another part of the review that was done well was her ability to describe how this discovery is beneficial to the rest of the world. For instance she states, “This issue directly affects a majority of the students at the Bronxville High School and high schools throughout the United States. Many students feel that they do not have enough time to get enough sleep each night, and often sacrifice precious hours of sleep to their school workload.” This strengthened her review because the reader was able to see how research is useful for a lot of the population.
    Although there were many parts of Kunzang’s review written well there were areas for improvement. One part of her review which could have been improved was her critique paragraph. Although she did mention the negatives and positives of the article I wish she had been less general when stating her positives and gone into more detail. Through adding more specific details about the positives of the article the reader would have had a better understanding of the article. Another part of the article that could have been improved was if she added more details about events that could occur because of lack of sleep. Also this would help strengthen her description of the research as a whole.
    Overall, I felt Kunzang wrote a strong review of this article which the reader could easily understand. Her review was written clearly and smoothly which allowed the reader to learn about the topic more easily and understand the research conducted. I enjoyed reading this review because I learned more aware about getting more sleep but also getting the same amount of sleep each night. Also through adding so many details about the how lack of sleep can harm you the reader was able to clearly understand the benefits of people researching this topic. Overall, I liked how she described the research that was done and the effects on the present world. Through her discussion of this article the reader got a better grasp on the topic and the importance of this new research.




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  2. Charlie Gay
    12/6/17
    Mr. Ippolito
    AP Biology
    Current Events 10
    Prabhune, Meenakshi. “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep.” Science News for Students, 21 Nov. 2017.
    https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/search?st=article%20teens%20good%20mood% 0depends%20good%20sleep.
    I really enjoyed reading Kunzang’s review on the article “For teens, a good mood depends on good sleep.” One thing that Kunzang did well was she made a great connection to the Bronxville School. She talked about the limited sleep that the students at Bronxville School get. This connection made the article a lot more personal and more interesting to read. Another thing that she did well was she provided the credentials of the researchers from these studies. For example, she wrote “Rafael Pelayo, a sleep doctor at the Stanford Research Center for Sleep Science and Medicine in California.” This adds to the credibility of the article. Another thing that Kunzang did well was she explained how sleep deprivation has a negative effect on us. For example, she wrote “Missed sleep can make kids more susceptible to mental and physical illnesses as well as drowsy teen drivers, car accidents are the leading cause of teenage death in America.”
    Although this is a very well written and interesting review there are some things that she could have improved on. One thing she could have done to improve her review was include a quote from an article. A quote would have further added to the credibility of the article and allow the readers to hear exactly what the experts have to say. Another thing that she could have improved on was she should have explained the negative effects of sleeping too much. She merely just stated that there were negative effect to sleeping too much.
    I chose this article because I feel like this is an issue that I have. I usually have a tough time getting enough sleep on the weekdays and try to catch up on sleep on the weekends. I was amazed to learn that sleeping too much can have a negative effect and make people crankier. I think this article will serve as a reminder to everyone, especially children, of the importance of sleep. It is of utmost important to get sleep and I think more research can be done to uncover the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

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  3. Amanda Shkreli
    AP Biology
    Current Event Review #10
    December 6th, 2017
    “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep.”

    Prabhune, Meenakshi. “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep.” Science News for Students, 21 Nov. 2017, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teens-good-mood-depends-good-sleep.

    Kunzang Namgyal’s review of “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep.” summarizes teenager’s relationships with sleep. In this review, Namgyal includes three aspects that make her review well written. Firstly, Namgyal addresses how a lack of sleep negatively impacts teenagers. She describes how at their current state of development, teenagers bodies crave to stay awake late at night, but sleep late in the morning. Because of school, teenagers are forced to wake up early in the morning, making it hard for them to get enough sleep at night to be well rested for the next day. Namgyal also points out how the correlation between lack of sleep and teenagers relates to mental and physical illnesses. By including this information, Namgyal establishes to the reader that not getting enough sleep generally creates a negative impact on teenagers, and in doing this, sets up her next claim. Secondly, Namgyal explains how getting too much sleep can also be detrimental to teenagers’ health. According to Rafael Pelayo, a sleep doctor at the Stanford Research Center for Sleep Science and Medicine in California, catching up on sleep over the weekend can be bad for mental health. Namgyal includes a quote from Pelayo in which he compares sleep cycles to appetites, “we don’t starve ourselves of food on weekdays and gorge on weekends… We shouldn't do that with sleep either” (Namgyal, 1). By including this information, Namgyal excellently supports her argument that too much sleep is bad for teenagers’ health using a reliable source. Lastly, Namgyal explains how a lack of sleep in teens is a national issue. Namgyal emphasizes that by not getting enough sleep, teenagers’ moods and performances are altered, therefore affect their peers, families, and themselves. By making this point, she accentuates the importance of teenagers being well rested.
    Though Namgyal’s review is well written, there are certain areas where there is room for improvement. For example, in the first paragraph, Namgyal makes the claim that at their current state of development, teenagers bodies crave to stay awake late at night. Though this is a good point, Namgyal doesn’t cite a credible source or study that confirms this claim with evidence. To improve the credibility of this statement, Namgyal should include a citation that supports it. Next, in order to expand the context of the subject, Namgyal should include information about the relationship that adults have with sleep. In doing this, she would provide a comparison between adults and teenagers, and how sleep affects their performance. Namgyal could easily incorporate this by researching studies on how many hours of sleep adults require.
    After reading this review, I’ve learned that getting too much sleep can actually negatively impact the performance of teenagers. I chose to read this article because as a teenager, I am very interested in my health, and ways that I can improve it to make my life better. As a result of reading this article, I will now reconsider my sleep schedule, and reorganize my activities so that I can get 8-10 hours of sleep.





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  4. Susie Goodell
    Mr. Ippolito
    AP Biology
    12/7/17
    Prabhune, Meenakshi. “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep.” Science News for Students, 21 Nov. 2017, www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teens-good-mood-depends-good-sleep.
    Current Event 10
    For this current event, I chose to read Kunzang’s review of the article “For Teens, a Good Mood Depends on Good Sleep” by Meenakshi Prabhune from Science News for Students. This article discusses how students don’t get enough sleep and trying to “catch up” on sleep is detrimental to their health. Kunzang did a great job describing the effects of little sleep and too much sleep. These are very important to understanding the main purpose of the investigation done at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kunzang also included a quote from a sleep doctor who works at the Stanford Research Center for Sleep Science and Medicine in California. His insight on this topic provided good support for the claims of the study and intrigued readers. Kunzang successfully conveyed the importance of getting enough sleep, especially for teenagers. She made a compelling argument and used statistics from credible scientists to back up her points.
    Despite all of the great aspects of this review, there are a few things that Kunzang could do to improve. She could have added more information about the study that the researchers completed in order to provide readers with greater detail about what steps the scientists took. It would also present a means to evaluate how accurate the study is as teenagers reading this article. Kunzang also could have included more examples of how schools and workplaces can help people get more sleep. She briefly mentions that many schools have pushed back their start times in an effort to allow students more time to sleep, but she doesn’t go into depth with more ways to provide aid.
    I chose to read this review because this is a problem that I can relate to and one that I hear frequently about. I find it very interesting to read about sleep and how it affects our bodies. This is an important issue for our world because people have been getting increasingly less sleep per night and that is having an impact on efficiency and effectiveness at school and at work. I thought that the point about how catching up on sleep over the weekend is actually really bad for mental health because my mom always tells me to try to catch up if I had been up late doing work during the week. I think this issue is extremely important and businesses and schools should take more initiative to assist workers and students.

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