Among Teens, Sleep Deprivation an Epidemic

What is the best meaning of myriad in the following sentence from the passage?

Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood teens will suffer myriad negative consequences, including an inability to concentrate, poor grades, drowsy-driving incidents, and anxiety.

• complex

• few

• many

• surprising

How do the paragraphs 2-4 (below) contribute to the idea that teenagers would benefit from a later school start time?

Carolyn Walworth, 17, often reaches a breaking point around 11 p.m., when she collapses in tears. For 10 minutes or so, she just sits at her desk and cries, overwhelmed by unrelenting school demands. She is desperately tired and longs for sleep. But she knows she must move through it, because more assignments in physics, calculus or French await her. She finally crawls into bed around midnight or 12:30 a.m.

The next morning, she fights to stay awake in her first-period U.S. history class, which begins at 8:15. She is unable to focus on what’s being taught, and her mind drifts. “You feel tired and exhausted, but you think you just need to get through the day so you can go home and sleep,” said the Palo Alto, California, teen. But that night, she will have to try to catch up on what she missed in class. And the cycle begins again.

“It’s an insane system. … The whole essence of learning is lost,” she said.

• It highlights the fact that teenagers are assigned too much homework.

• It reveals the negative impact of electronic devices on teenage sleep cycles.

• It provides a real-world example of the negative effects of sleep deprivation.

• It supports the idea that teenagers would not benefit from later school start times.

Which statement best describes the effect of sleep deprivation on teens?

• It causes them to rethink their relationship with technology.

• It forces them to find creative ways to get the sleep they need.

• It allows them to learn how to successfully function with sleep debt.

• It interrupts their ability to be successful and thrive in school and life.

How do the findings in Dement's and Carskadon's study (see below) contribute to the debate surrounding later school start times?

Dement and Carskadon had expected to find that as the participants grew older, they would need less sleep. But to their surprise, their sleep needs remained the same — roughly nine hours a night — through their teen years. “We thought, ‘Oh, wow, this is interesting,’” said Carskadon, now a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University and a nationally recognized expert on teen sleep.

Moreover, the researchers made a number of other key observations that would plant the seed for what is now accepted dogma6 in the sleep field. For one, they noticed that when older adolescents were restricted to just five hours of sleep a night, they would become progressively sleepier during the course of the week. The loss was cumulative,7 accounting for what is now commonly known as sleep debt.

“The concept of sleep debt had yet to be developed,” said Dement, the Lowell W. and Josephine Q. Berry Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. It’s since become the basis for his ongoing campaign against drowsy driving among adults and teens. “That’s why you have these terrible accidents on the road,” he said. “People carry a large sleep debt, which they don’t understand and cannot evaluate.”

• They introduce the idea of sleep debt that builds up over time.

• They provide a set of rules for schools to follow around start times.

• They confirm that teens only get about five hours of sleep most nights.

• They prove that teen drivers are too dangerous to be allowed on the road.

Which piece of evidence from paragraphs 2-4 best demonstrate that sleep debt is a persistent problem for teens?

• She is desperately tired and longs for sleep. But she knows she must move through it, because more assignments in physics, calculus, or French await her.

• The next morning, she fights to stay awake in her first period U.S. History class, which begins at 8:15.

• But that night, she will have to try to catch up on what she missed in class. And the cycle begins again.

• It's an insane system...The whole essence of learning is lost.

How many hours a night do they suggest teens get?

How many hours later do teen siblings stay up than their younger siblings?