How does lack of sleep affect adolescent health and school performance?

How does lack of sleep affect adolescent health and school performance?

• A. Impacts attention, mood, memory, and learning; increases risk-taking
• B. Increases height growth
• C. Has no effect on teens
• D. Only affects appetite

Answer: (A)

Lack of sleep disrupts how teens think, feel, and perform in school. When students don’t get enough rest, attention and alertness drop, mood becomes more unstable or irritable, and memory and the ability to learn new material suffer because memory consolidation happens during sleep. This combination directly hurts school performance: it’s harder to concentrate in class, retain information, and perform well on tests. Sleep also plays a role in self-control and judgment, so sleep-deprived teens are more prone to risky or impulsive behavior. This is why the option describing impacts on attention, mood, memory, and learning—and the tendency toward greater risk-taking—is the best fit. It captures the broad, real-world effects of sleep loss on both health and school functioning. Other statements miss the mark by focusing on things that aren’t directly tied to sleep loss (like height growth) or by claiming no effect or a single, narrow effect (such as only appetite).

Lack of sleep disrupts how teens think, feel, and perform in school. When students don’t get enough rest, attention and alertness drop, mood becomes more unstable or irritable, and memory and the ability to learn new material suffer because memory consolidation happens during sleep. This combination directly hurts school performance: it’s harder to concentrate in class, retain information, and perform well on tests. Sleep also plays a role in self-control and judgment, so sleep-deprived teens are more prone to risky or impulsive behavior.

This is why the option describing impacts on attention, mood, memory, and learning—and the tendency toward greater risk-taking—is the best fit. It captures the broad, real-world effects of sleep loss on both health and school functioning. Other statements miss the mark by focusing on things that aren’t directly tied to sleep loss (like height growth) or by claiming no effect or a single, narrow effect (such as only appetite).