Garrett had a very tough time to wake up during the start of the school. He first was of the opinion that as he practiced going late to bed and getting up late during his summer holidays it was continuing. He also felt with the passage of time he would get set with the timings. But even after the school year progressed he had so many sleepless nights and found it difficult to get up early in the morning. As he began to sleep in the class hours, he started going down in academics too.

 Now days it has become very common for most teens to suffer from lack of sleep. It may be because of overloading but at times like the above mentioned case, it may be a sleeping disorder also.

On doing work over night or missing out a nights sleep can male people deficient of sleep. This may lead to mental disturbances and can create lack of concentration or attention in their study, work, or job. Also emotional problems are subjected to be caused.

Stages in a sleep:

We might have read in books that even if a person sleeps, his brain will be awake that is in active state. There are five stages in a persons sleep including the stages one, two, three, four and the rapid eye movement. All these together constitute a persons sleep cycle. Each sleep cycles duration may be around 100 minutes. Thus in actual practice during a night sleep person is supposed to have four to five sleep cycles.

Stage 1 and 2 are the preliminary stages of sleep from which it is very easy to awaken them. The eye movements starts slowing down and at a point it will stop making the body temperatures, heart as well as the breathing rates to come down. This happens with the proceeding of 3^rd and 4^th stages making them go deep into their sleep. It is a bit difficult to awake a person during these stages and its the enjoyable stage of sleep for those who want to get relaxed from the tiredness. Rapid eye movement commonly called as REM is the last stage of sleep where we get dreams. During this stage, the heart beat, breathing, muscles tend to work fast.

Reason for lack of sleep in teens:

A study has been reported that teens are in need of at least 9 hours of sleep every night. We dont have to follow the timings exactly of nine hours because the various educational improvements and technological improvements have made the working hours to be occupying the sleep time too. Our brain remains active and working until we ourselves wrap up to sleep.

The adolescence period is the one in which the bodys internal clock namely the circadian pattern of rhythm can be reset making them to sleep at late nights and making them wake up late in the morning. This may be attributed to the presence of a hormone in the brain called melatonin. Thus the sleep cycle may get delayed sometimes making their daily routine to get disturbed. In such a case it is a syndrome.

The delayed sleep syndrome is not only due to the changes in the biological clock but also due to stress which may lead to insomnia. In such cases, people keep sleeping. And also it may be due to some noisy or uncomfortable environments, some problems in family leading to mental and emotional disturbances even physical disorders. Relational problems, health factors like having cold fever, can also lead to insomnia.

This disorder may be common in present era. But the prolonging of insomnia is considered as chronic by many doctors. This typical problem can be caused due to the side effects of some medicines, any drug abuse, or even some illness in mind. And it is very much recommended for people who are suffering from this kind of problems for a longer time to consult a physician or even a counselor to get the problems solved.

 Fear is the main reason for much illness in man. The persons suffering from insomnia can make their situation bad by still worrying about the same which may make the person very worried and tired. The anxiety in them will make them uncomfortable to concentrate on the next day. This type of disorder is called psycho physiologic insomnia by many leading therapists and doctors.

Here are few examples which can make the teens have lack of sleep:

People who care victims of the Periodic Limb Movement Disorder and Restless Legs Syndrome will get their sleep to be disturbed by their leg movements which may at times be irritating. In the periodic limb movement disorder, the involuntary actions cause many other problems of which are unaware of. Also those who have the restless legs syndrome may get some physical sensations like itching or burning causing them discomfort in moving their legs thus disrupting their sleep. There are various treatments for the above syndrome even simple medication shall cure it.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a sleep discomfort in a person has intermittent breathing while sleeping. It may be because of the increased size of the tonsils or the tissue in the nose throat passage. At times, over weight people too suffer from this disorder. At times, they even snore and even have excessive sweating during sleep. This might be disturbing even for the one who sleeps peacefully. Thus if you have snoring habits and a habit of sleeping more during day time, it is recommended to visit a doctor at the earliest.

Few people might get affected with gastro esophageal reflux disease .This might lead to the acid in the stomach to rise up to the esophagus causing the burning sensation in the heart. The symptoms are very harmful when it happens when the person is sleeping or lying down. The heart burning sensation may surely disrupt the sleep causing inconvenience.

It is very common in most of the teens to suffer from nightmares. This will make the sleep to get disturbed now and then causing the lack of peaceful sleep. Even consumption of drugs and alcohol can lead to the nightmares occurring frequently. Emotional disturbances like stress anxiety and depression are the prime reasons for the nightmares to occur. If it prolongs for a long time, it is better to consult a doctor and get it cured.

 People who are affected by narcolepsy are mostly always sleepy and are even addicts to sleep all throughout the day. They find everything to be in their dreams dozing off waking up everything seems to be out of their control.  At times, they may also get nightmares making them stay awakened during the night time. It is a very dangerous disorder as there might be no indications before people doze off and if it happens during driving, it is all the more hazardous. The general life of the person can be disturbed by this.

In general, it is found in teens and in most of the cases it remains unnoticed. They may get the symptoms of the diseases at the earlier stages of life say in between their teen age. If it is not treated properly, it might lead to many other side effects. The treatment might include the intake of few drugs and a few changes in their life style.

Sleepwalking is a disorder which is more common in children than in teens this may mostly due to hereditary reason. Also it occurs when the child is too stressed or scared of any physical illness like fever. This type of disorder happens during the deep sleep may be in the stages three and four. They dont even remember where they go and come back to their beds on their own. At the same time, its not safe for such a habit to continue as it might put them into trouble. So help the sleep walkers to get back to the bed in the safest manner.

Ideas to solve the problem

If you feel restless during daytime despite of having a sound sleep at night, then it is advisable to visit a doctor at the earliest. Only if you are very much tired these problems are bound to arouse not jus because of lack of sleep.

If it is suspected to be because of sleep problems, the doctor will have to take a thorough look of your health habits. Not only the examination will be done but also the doctor will be in need of your medical background that is the history whether you are allergetic to any of the drugs or you have taken any medication in recent times. If needed, some tests can be done in laboratory to find out the reason of the syndrome.

There are different ways to treat sleep problems. The method adopted for one will not be the same for all. Some problems are be easily cured with drugs and medications where as a few may require special therapy treatments. In some cases, some other practices which might aid to reset the internal biological clock of the person can also be done.

The main advice given by the physician now days to teenagers is to improve their life style habits and natures in such a way to get a very sound sleep. There is a awareness that the intake of caffeine can make us awake but we fail to understand that even electronic gadgets, video games, sitting in system and watching television also does the same thing to us.