teens are becoming more tired?

I am a teen and I have a common problem. No, not bullying or peer pressure, but being able to get the sleep I need to function everyday. I end up falling asleep in class, which is not good for my grades, and doing poorly in after school activities. Today I decided my readers might like to know that they are not the only ones who might have trouble sleeping or feel tired often.

Almost 80%  of teens do not get the recommended amount of sleep, reports a recent National Sleep Foundation poll. The ideal amount of sleep for kids ages 11-17 is between 8 1/2 - 9 1/4 hours a night.

Parents would know if their teens were getting too little sleep, right? Possibly, no. It's easy for parents to miss the cues. The top sign of lack of sleep is irritability, a common mood amoung teens. WebMD states: "In fact, as many as half of the teenagers we study are so sleep deprived they look as if they have narcolepsy, a serious neurological disorder that leaves people excessively tired. kids who are sleepy are more likely to drift off in class, miss school entirely, and have trouble with learning and remembering. In some cases, a teen's mood disorder is a direct result of poor sleep." So not only can sleep effect school life, but it can effect mental health."As kids mature, melatonin is secreted later and later in the evening. At the same time, during adolescence there's a slowdown of the "sleep pressure" rate-the rate at which sleepiness builds up over the course of the day. This also makes it easier for teens to stay awake longer and later.Studies show that high school students' natural time to fall asleep is around 11 p.m.-partly because they're so revved up from all their evening activities. This isn't a problem when they're able to sleep in." 

 Some tips WebMD gives to help wake up in the mornig for a better nights sleep:

1. Make sure your exposed to light as soon as possible after rising. Taking the dog for a walk, going for a jog, or just throwing open the curtains signals the brain that it's daytime; it activates the internal clock and programs the sleep system to slow down by evening.

2. It's also really important to get the caffeine out of diets. Ideally, you need 10 hours without caffeine for  good sleep, which means no caffeinated soda or energy drink after noon.

3. It's fine to sleep an extra hour or two on Saturday and Sunday mornings. But "binge sleeping" can backfire: If a teen goes to bed late, then sleeps until 1 p.m. on weekends, come Sunday night, the body and brain aren't going to be ready for an earlier bedtime

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/is-your-teen-too-tired

More than 90 percent of teens in a recent study published in the Journal of School Health reported sleeping less than the recommended nine hours a night. In the same study, 10 percent of teens reported sleeping less than six hours a night