Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: M welcome back to another episode of Spill the Tea where we share real stories with real teens.
Last episode we went down the rabbit hole into the science of sleep and it was such a hit. But it was jam packed with science insights and tips and tricks. So we decided to break it down into bite sized episodes, making it easier to catch the insights without losing sleep over the details.
In this mini series, we'll unpack topics like what happens when you're running on empty with sleep deprivation? Take a tour through our brain's overnight workshop for our dreams, memories and learning, and decode your body's built in clock with circadian alertness. So get comfortable and let's wake up to the fascinating science behind better sleep.
If you hit the snooze button five times on Monday morning or slept through three alarms you set for yourself, chances are you're sleep deprived. And for most teenagers, sleeping through the alarm isn't a one time occurrence, it's a habit. This episode we're taking a deep dive into sleep deprivation, finding out how much sleep a teenager really needs versus how much they're actually getting, examining some landmark studies that explain why so many high achieving teens turn into zombies by the end of the day, and exploring the effects of sleep deprivation. We're going to hear from some teenagers on their personal experiences with sleep, as well as two experts in the field to help guide us through this topic.
What could be behind some of a sleepy teen's zombie like behavior? Let's find out on Spill the Tea.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Definitely not a lot of sleep. Like not the amount of sleep I know I should be getting. But it's just I feel like it's hard, especially during season to prioritize rest when there's so much other stuff going on.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: So it is college app season and I will say I have been going to sleep pretty late.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: My sleep schedule is pretty consistent but unhealthy in the amount of sleep.
As a society, the United States is generally sleep deprived and sleep deprivation among teenagers is especially common. In a National Sleep Foundation 2006 poll of 1600 high school students, 38% got six hours or less each night and almost 80% reported insufficient sleep to break down sleep deprivation. For us, we have two experts joining us, the first being Dr. Mary Karskadin, a pioneer in the study of sleep for children and adolescents and a leader in the field of sleep and circadian science. Dr. Carskadin holds a doctorate with distinction in Neuro and Biobehavioral Sciences from Stanford University, and she has written and published many scientific Papers receiving numerous awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Sleep foundation, the Distinguished Scientist Award and Outstanding Educator Award from the Sleep Research Society, to name a few.
[00:02:49] Speaker D: You know, when I first started doing the research, the assumption was that as kids pass through the teenage years, they need less sleep. And so we don't really believe that anymore, or, uh, the data don't support that anymore.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: So how much sleep should teenagers actually be getting? To answer this question, we have another Expert joining us. Dr. Meta Chen is the medical director for the Pediatric Sleep center at Seattle Children's Hospital. She's professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a physician practicing in pediatric pulmonary and sleep medicine.
[00:03:25] Speaker E: So I think when people think of sleep deprivation, they actually mean it in two different ways. One is just not enough hours of sleep. The second one is poor quality sleep.
And I think teenagers are prone to both. So when you talk about those two together, I think that's actually the modern definition of sleep deprivation is that it is hours and quality that are deprived.
So in terms of the hours of sleep, we've determined, or I've said anyway, that most teenagers probably benefit most from anywhere from 8 to 11 hours per night. We know based on years and years of data that most average American teenagers are only getting six to seven hours on, um, school nights.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: So we've heard that there are two aspects to a healthy night of sleep. The quantity and the quality.
Teens should be getting about 8 to 11 hours of sleep per night, but in reality, most are only getting six hours. Don't forget this number, six hours. This is a key component explained in the zombie study later in the episode. So what happens if teens don't get 8 to 11 hours a night? Can they make it up on the weekend?
[00:04:38] Speaker D: Some lost sleep can be recovered. I mean, um, many people do that every week.
They don't get enough sleep during the week, and then they get oversleep on the weekends and they recover some of the sleep they've lost.
[00:04:55] Speaker E: You're never going to make up for the fact though that that night, Remember, important things happen during sleep in your brain. And those things will have not happened if you don't get sleep and you're not going to get that part back. Lost sleep is very rarely ever found.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: So for all the teens out there, myself included, pulling that all nighter because you think you can sleep it off on the weekend is not a solution. And, uh, we can never get that sleep back. And for all the teens that get six hours of sleep a night and Call it good. That also rubs off on you.
Sleep deprivation can cause microsleeps, brief uncontrollable episodes of sleep lasting just a few seconds, during which the brain temporarily falls asleep, even if the person appears awake. For example, have you ever phased out and then suddenly realized that you've been called on in class?
[00:05:43] Speaker D: Bueller.
Bueller.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: That could have been a microsleep. Microsleeps were discovered in a study at UPENN where researchers kept a group of teenagers awake for three straight days and then asked them to do basic tasks. Not unlike asking a teenager to clean their room or brush their teeth.
Those sleep deprived teenagers started to have microsleeps and in zombie like behavior, earning the study the nickname the zombie study.
But what was even more shocking was that another group of teenagers who were restricted to six hours of sleep per night for two weeks, actually performed just as poorly on attention and reaction time tests as participants who had gone three straight days without any sleep.
Chronic sleep loss can be just as damaging as pulling all nighters, even when people don't realize how impaired they have become. From feeling slightly sleepy in history class to full on sleep deprived zombie behavior. The line isn't hard to cross, especially for high achieving teens who often trade sleep for productivity and end up stuck in a loop of unfinished tasks and restless nights.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Over time you become adjusted to lack of sleep.
[00:06:58] Speaker E: And we know one of the most common characteristics for people who have insomnia is high achievement. It's a type A personality. It's people who need to make sure that those boxes are checked before they go to sleep.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Speaking of high achievers, the first place winner of the 1963 annual Greater San Diego Science fair was Randy Gardner, who famously entered with an unusual experiment seeing how long a teenager could stay awake. Uh, at 17 years old, Randy was able to stay awake for 11 days and 25 minutes. But on day three, he started developing nausea, was irritable, and would forget things. Later in life. He developed severe insomnia that he attributes to his teenage stunt. Randy's experiment is a brilliant representation of the effects, both long term and short term of sleep deprivation.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: I spend so much time at school and my wife practice and I just come home and I'm really, really tired. So I think my whole evening just ends up going slower. Like I'll take a long time to eat dinner, to shower.
[00:07:56] Speaker C: And a lot of us think that we can catch up on sleep. But the advice I've heard from a lot of my elders or a lot of my older peers is that it affects you, it really does affect you. When you get to college and when you get to your older years, it's harder for you to, um, retain information in your memory. It's harder for you to process things.
[00:08:17] Speaker E: In general, I think people traditionally think of not getting enough sleep with being overtly sleepy the next day. And when I mean overtly sleepy, I mean low hanging fruit, sorts of things like falling asleep in class or falling asleep while driving, God forbid, uh, things like that, taking naps after school. And those certainly may be signs of being sleepy and not getting enough quality or quantity of sleep, but really those are late signs. There are much more common things that occur when we are sleep deprived at much earlier stages.
The primary ones being things like socio emotional regulation.
You get snippettier, your moods can shift a lot faster, tempers can flare faster. It is harder to make, uh, good judgment calls.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: As Dr. Chud explains, a tired teenager often equals a cranky teenager and a teenager with bad decision making. Now let's talk about what's happening in their brains.
Normally, decisions are made through a balance of two parts of our the, uh, amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. The amygdala is the brain's emotional alarm system. It quickly detects potential threats and triggers emotional reactions like fear, stress, or anger. Or in other words, it's your inner hulk.
Hulk smash.
The prefrontal cortex is the Bruce Banner to the amygdala's hulk. It is responsible for logical thinking, self control, planning, and weighing consequences. It helps us make thoughtful decisions instead of acting on impulse.
Sleep deprivation wrecks this balance. In a series of MRI studies, sleep restricted teenagers showed about a 60% increase in amygdala activity when emotionally triggered, while the prefrontal cortex was significantly reduced.
So the Hulk is fired up and Bruce Banner is nowhere to be found.
With this, teens were more likely to make impulsive decisions, overreact emotionally, and have difficulty regulating their feelings. Did your teenage brother crash out after you ate his leftover burrito? Anyone might be angry about eating a burrito, but crashing out is caused by a sleep deprived brain. In the same studies, scientists reported that within 24 hours of sleep deprivation, the teens had become irritable and anxious. After two days, some started having hallucinations and confusion. And after four days, some had delusions and became acutely psychotic. This helps explain why a lack of sleep can lead to riskier choices and
[00:10:49] Speaker E: stronger emotional responses, especially for a teenager when you have even a little bit of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation will alter your perception of things, of things being good or bad. And so when we think about teenage brains, they love to magnify. They love to put themselves in catastrophic states. And those are so much easier to get to when you are sleep deprived. And so we know people don't make the smartest decisions when they're in those states.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to this episode of Spill the Tea on Sleep Deprivation. Whether you're a teen trying to squeeze by on too little sleep or just someone wondering why missing a few hours leaves you feeling like a zombie, we hope this episode gave you a better understanding of why sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your brain and body. And if you're understandably a little freaked out about sleep deprivation, don't worry. In our longer episode called Sleep Secrets, we unpack multiple solutions and tips to getting the healthy night of sleep we all need.
But we're not done dreaming just yet. Check out the two other episodes on sleep where we uncover the mysteries of REM sleep, the sleep stage where your brain is buzzing, your body is resting and your dreams can get seriously crazy. Then we tackle circadian alertness and find out why your body has a built in clock that's constantly deciding when you're ready to conquer the day or desperately need a nap. See you next time. And thanks for listening to Spill the Tea.
