Two weeks ago I discovered another hardship among the difficulties of one’s teenage years. It’s a hardship that is very serious, yet unspoken and not included in the well-known discussion about teenage struggles. It’s not the familiar self consciousness due to stereotypes, or the depression that often develops from harsh high-school stressors. No, this mysterious and aggravating teenage problem is, oddly enough, sleep deprivation.

Before anyone can bring up explanations such as, “Teenagers always stay up to late!” and “The loads of caffeine consumed by a teenager would keep them up all night!” teenage sleep deprivation goes beyond these immediate assumptions even though these issues can play a part. I can safely say this because I know. I have also experienced, and occasionally stillexperience insomnia.

About a year ago, I suddenly began finding myself lying in bed for hours after turning off my lamp, without the familiarity of sleep. This was odd because I had previously never had a problem when it came to quickly falling into sleep. As this problem persisted, I tried everything to find the cause; experimenting by cutting out certain foods, loud music, computer, T.V., and everything else that could possibly cause stimulation late atnight, but to no avail. After months of searching for a solution, I eventually just decided that I will sleep when I sleep, and I let go of the situation. It gradually got better but occasionally still lingers.

During this struggle with lack of sleep, I thought it was just a rare

inconvenience that I alone was experiencing, never considering that it might

be an “under the radar” problem that keeps numbers of teenagers up at night.

I didn’t realize that this problem was shared by others until I  overheard

various conversations at school from my friends and even people I didn’t

know, complaining about how they “couldn’t sleep again last night.” After overhearing these conversations, I decided to do some research on the subject and see what I could find.

Surprisingly, I found that more than a few teenagers share my problem- 30 percent of all teenagers suffer from a sleep disorder. One study showed that over 90 percent reported having problems sleeping at least two times per week.

Research shows that a large contributing factor is the resetting of one’s biological clock during adolescence. This new setting tells teenagers to fall asleep later at night, making the process of falling asleep and waking up early much more difficult. Also, changes to a teenager’s body are created by the brain hormone, melatonin, which is produced by a teenager later at night during this time in their life. This makes the “normal” hours of sleep less natural. The sleep disorder that these teenagers are commonly experiencing is known as “delayed sleep phase syndrome”.

These statistics show that, aside from the pressures of high school life, sleep difficulties are mostly beyond a teenager’s control. Teenagers will sleep when they sleep. And as always, life goes on. The delayed sleep phase will eventually disappear with time. But if you, or someone you know, is struggling with these problems, here are a few tips you can try: Exercising during the day can help but not within three hours before going to bed, try not to do anything mentally stimulating such as homework within an hour before going to bed, and it’s probably not a good idea to have a T.V. or loud music blaring in your face right before calling it a night.

But if you still have nights where you watch the hours slip away, don’t

worry because, despite what you think, you will live. It happens to the best

of us. And remember, as the famous American author Fran Lebowitz once said,

“Life is something that happens when you can’t get to sleep.”

Basch Jernigan is a junior at Gulf Shores High School. He welcomes all

comments and suggestions: basch@gulftel.com