“The great cordial of nature is sleep. He that misses that, will suffer by it.” A notable quote by english philosopher John Locke that exemplifies the consequences of not enough sleep. Sleep is vital to well-being and is just as important as the air people breathe. According to the writers of Sleep Foundation, it even helps appetite and manages the stress of being a teen. Getting enough sleep is one of the biggest problems for teens. Sleep deprivation affects a variety of things in a person’s life.

One of the biggest things sleep takes over is cognitive functions. From my own personal experience, my attention span is very short when I’m tired. Whether it be in a lecture, on an assignment, or even talking to people, I can not focus properly if I am too tired. The board of directors from the National Sleep Foundation state that not getting enough sleep can limit someone’s ability to learn, listen, concentrate, and solve problems. This is a chain-reaction because once the attention span is lost, then it results in struggling on more severe tasks like drowsiness behind the wheel. Drowsy Driving causes more than 100,000 car crashes every year, affirmed the writers of the NSF.
Sleeping and driving is a horrific combination when put together. Most people understand the risks of drinking and driving but are not aware that drowsy driving is just as dangerous. Everyday a large portion of  high-school students drive to school in the morning. If they don’t get enough sleep, it will slow reaction time, decrease awareness, impair judgment and increases their risk of crashing as claimed by the site Drowsy Driving linked to the National Sleep Foundation. With later start times, a large portion of these accidents could be prevented allowing enough time for the brain to rest. Sleepiness will take away your cognitive functions and then works towards a teen’s work ethic.

Some teens struggle with motivation. A lack of motivation can lead to procrastination, and not getting enough sleep is going to make both of those aspects much worse. When teens go to school, then to extra-curricular activities, and then manage to squeeze in two or more hours of homework each night, they may feel burned out. Burnout can appear as not doing homework or not taking the time to study for that big test the next day. Teenagers need time to relax and clear their heads. People need to allow themselves some fun! But there is only one problem, not enough time. School and other activities do not allow enough time to relax which guides them down the path of stress. Stress can be positive and allow awareness into certain situations, but becomes negative when a person faces continuous challenges without relief or relaxation between challenges, discovered the doctors of Web MD. Eventually, continued stress will lead to procrastination and burn out.

  More serious results of stress can affect the mental, physical, emotional, and behavioral features of a person. Web MD claimed that continuous stress can lead to a condition called distress. Distress is caused when a person has too much unmanageable stress, and could lead to physical symptoms such as: headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pains, and problems sleeping. Research suggests that stress is likely to worsen symptoms of diseases and illnesses. Believe it or not sleep deprivation also affects the fun things in life.

"You're putting energy in the bank when you go to sleep." quoted Barry Krakow MD medical director Maimonides Sleep arts and Sciences, Ldt. in Albuquerque N.M. We have all seen a crabby teenager having to get up in the morning, and it's not so pleasant. Later on they go to school and rub their sour mood off on everybody else. Lack of sleep will also control moods and interactions with one another. Most likely, these effects will lead to negative interactions with friends, teachers, parents, and even pets. According to Psychology Today, researchers have actually brought in people and made them stay up all night recording their actions and mood. Evidence suggests that when people lack sleep, they feel more irritable, angry, and hostile. People who suffer from sleep deprivation are especially likely to react negatively when something doesn’t go well for them; for example, a bad test grade or friend conflicts could easily lead to these problems.

School start times have a great influence on how much sleep a teen gets. There have been many experiments conducted on school start times and one of the most known experiments was in May of 2012, Wendy Troxel, a RAND Corporation behavioral scientist, joined more than 50 of her colleagues, cautioned by Pittsburgh Public Schools against implementing a plan to advance high school start times. First they were advanced by 30 min to 7:36 am, and then by 60 min to 7:06 am in order to save about $1.2 million in transportation costs. Wendy Troxel said, “Early start times does in fact create adverse consequences for a teen’s academic, mental, social and physical well-being.” Wendy also stated that teenagers can’t go to bed any earlier than they normally do as a result of their hormones. Economists from Columbia University and the University of Michigan estimate that shifting school start times from at least 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. will increase academic achievement by a little amount such as 0.175 standard deviation.

Recent studies have shown that without enough sleep, it can affect cognitive functions, work ethics, and alters moods. Even though teenagers’ hormones don’t allow them to go to bed any earlier, they should try to settle in earlier or turn off their phone before they go to bed to allow the proper amount of rest for their bodies. Enough sleep would benefit mental, physical, and behavioral aspects of a teen. “The great cordial of nature is sleep. He that misses that, will suffer by it.” John Locke’s quote does exemplify the truths from lack of sleep. Sleep is just as important as the air people breathe, and not everyone is aware of that despite the consequences . Nothing would seem important without sleep, or at least to a drowsy teenager getting up in the morning.