The Synergy Project Magazine - September 2020

TO ALL THE TEENS FEELING
YOU ARE NO
dramatic changes to teens’ daily lives
are keeping them awake at night.
According to Sleep Standards, 77%
of Americans are finding it harder
to sleep during the pandemic (“62
Eye-Opening Sleep Statistics”). With
shifted schedules from online school
and work, lack of exercise due to
cancelled sports and safety concerns
and an overall increased stress during
2020, America is not only seeing a
rise in COVID cases but also insomnia
cases. Research from Express Scripts
showed an increase in prescriptions
for sleep disorders by 14.8% from
February 16 to March 15, as well as an
increase for anti-anxiety medications
and antidepressants (“America’s State
of Mind”). Neurologists are calling this
“COVID-somnia”.
What is sleep? What is
insomnia? Sleep is a state in which
our awareness and physical activity
are lower compared to when we are
awake. There are two mechanisms that
regulate how we fall asleep and stay
asleep: homeostatic regulation and
our circadian rhythm. Homeostasis,
our body’s way to regulate our system
and maintain balance, causes us to
fall asleep faster when we are sleep
deprived. Circadian rhythm is a 24-hour
clock in our brains that synchronizes
our sleep and wakefulness cycle with
our environment’s light and dark cycle
controlled by the suprachiasmatic
nucleus, which is located in the
hypothalamus. During sleep, the
pituitary gland releases hormones
that are important for growth and
development. Sleep is also associated
with maintaining cognitive thinking and
memory formation.
Insomnia is the most common
sleep disorder. According to the
International Classification of Diseases,
people with chronic insomnia have
trouble falling asleep or staying
asleep for at least 3 days a week for
a month (The ICD-10). While transient
and intermittent insomnia due to
daily stress are common and normal,
chronic insomnia is associated with
an increased risk for depression and
anxiety, especially among young adults
(Buysse).
Why should there be growing
concern for insomnia as schools
reopen? Due to irregular schedules
caused by online school and extra free
time, teenager’s sleep schedules have
wildly shifted during the pandemic.
The increase in teens’ screen time
combined with a lack of exposure from
natural sunlight during stay-at-home
orders are also contributing to the
disruption to their circadian rhythms
and their sleep-wake cycles. Even I am
finding myself wide awake at three in
the morning, either mindlessly scrolling
through TikTok or thinking about school,
colleges and the pandemic.
The surge in insomnia due to
COVID-19 is also contributing to an
increase in depression and anxiety
among teenagers. According to the
same study from 4-H, almost half of
all American teens are stressed or
depressed during the pandemic and
70% of teens wish that school taught
them more about mental health
and coping methods (Chase). It is
clear that more teens are worried
about mental health and think it is a
major issue to be addressed during
COVID-19. Unfortunately, schools are
finding mental health counseling to be
difficult in an online environment. In
my own state of Virginia, even though
over 100,000 teens suffer from mental
illness, students who were originally
receiving mental health services
before the pandemic either no longer
had access to resources or found
their schools’ telehealth options to be
insufficient (Angelus).
As select schools are attempting
to juggle between online and inperson
options, they seriously need
to consider both the physical and
mental health of their students. If
a school is attempting to reopen
for all of their students, they should
take advantage of that opportunity