Article of the Week #7—Due Wednesday, Nov. 5th
Directions:
● Read and annotate the article—write notes on what each paragraph is about in the margins
● Complete the “Vocabulary in Context” chart.
● Complete the “Reading for Meaning” chart.
● Write a well-developed They Say / I Say response to one of the argument(s) made in the article -- not
merely a summary of the article -- on your own sheet of paper.
Less Sleep, More Time Online
Raise Risk for Teen Depression
by MAANVI SINGH
February 06, 2014 10:30 AM
The teenage years are a tumultuous time, with about 11 percent developing depression by age
18. Lack of sleep may increase teenagers' risk of depression, two studies say.
Teenagers who don't get enough sleep are four times as likely to develop major depressive
disorder as their peers who sleep more, according to researchers at the University of Texas
Health Science Center in Houston. They tracked the habits of more than 4,000 adolescents over a
year.
And already depressed teens were four times as likely to lose sleep. "That's a pretty strong
reciprocal relationship," says behavioral scientist Robert Roberts, the study's lead author.
The trend remained even after the researchers adjusted the data to account for demographic
differences. The findings were published last week in the journal Sleep.
It's all the more reason that parents should try to monitor how much their kids are sleeping,
Roberts tells Shots. "Kids should go to bed at a regular time. They should wake up at a regular
time. They should have a dark room if possible — that means no TV, no games, no phones."
A lot of adolescents just aren't getting as much sleep at they should. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention recommends nine to 10 hours, but 70 percent of high schoolers don't
meet that requirement.
In a second study, researchers in Sweden found that lack of sleep and excessive media use were
associated with mental health problems in teens.
The researchers from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm collected data from over 12,000
European adolescents. They were looking for behaviors that were most associated with
depression and suicide in teens.
It came as no surprise that teens who misused drugs and skipped school were more likely to have
depression, says Danuta Wasserman, one of the study's authors and the director of
Karolinska's National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention.
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But the teens who engaged in risky behaviors weren't the only ones who showed depressive
symptoms. Depression and suicidal thoughts were just as common among kids who didn't sleep
and exercise enough, and who spent a lot of time on the Internet. Both groups were over three
times as likely to have depression as the rest of their peers.
Wasserman says she and her colleagues decided to call the latter the "invisible risk" group,
because most parents and teachers didn't realize that the kids in that group were hurting. The
study was published Monday in the Journal Word Psychiatry.
Wasserman says more research needs to be done before we can know how Internet use affects
depression, and how depressed kids are likely to use the Internet. It could be a way to avoid
social interaction, but it could also be a place where kids seek out help, she says.
But Wasserman says that she wasn't surprised that teens in this invisible risk group weren't
getting enough sleep.
There's plenty of evidence on the link between sleep problems and depression in teenagers and
adults. But teens are especially susceptible to loosing sleep. During puberty, circadian rhythms
change, and teens want to sleep and wake up later, Roberts says.
At the same time, in high school homework gets harder, kids start to take on part time jobs, and
their social lives amp up.
"When you throw in all the video games and iPods and all the phones," Roberts says, “sleep
starts to become less of a priority.”
Early school start times don't help, he says. Parents all over the country are petitioning for
legislation that would move high school start times later.
"[Sleep deprivation] is a highly prevalent public health problem," Roberts says. If parents and
teachers are able to pick up early on that teenagers aren't sleeping enough, they might be able to
help before things get worse.
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Vocabulary in Context
Directions: Using the context only--define the words in bold from the article above:
Term
Your definition based on context…
tumultuous
reciprocal
susceptible
circadian
rhythms
Reading for Meaning Statements
Directions: For each statement below, circle whether the text supports it, and, in the space
provided, share quoted, textual evidence to support your response.
Statements
1. Teenagers who
don’t sleep enough
are at risk for
depression.
2. Too much time
spent on the internet
can lead to
depression.
3. Teenagers who
participate in risky
behavior are most
likely the only teens
not sleeping enough.
Does the
information in
the article
agree with this
statement?
Your Evidence
yes
no
yes
no
yes
no
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