The Effects Of Tapping Into The World Of The Sleep Deprived As A Teen

by George Brown
(Random, Ontario, Canada)

i remember a time when you woke up, went to school to come home and complete that day's homework and then before you knew it supper then soon after bed. However, I am a teen and so although the days of simple math question worksheets are replaced by high school realms of calculus, trigonometry and other brain bending subjects with lots of homework associated to get into a good university.

Well at one point i got a job and so that got me used to the idea of staying up till later hours to accomplish homework and on the occasions i didn't work i was finishing at a far more effective pace getting double the amount done but still staying up till 2 in the morning despite having to get up at 630 for school.

Well one day i remember distinctly having mountains of homework on top of studying for the heavily weighted final task and exam coming up within a week of each other and math was always my strong suit so i really wanted to maintain my 99% mark (in fact thanks to my teachers love for bonus questions at one point i had 100%) now i stayed up that night just studying and pretty much ran on coffee, red bull and 5 hour energy shots for that weekend including friday and by monday i had hit a block and no longer needed the caffeine or energy to feel as awake as i needed to be to focus in classes.

Well this pattern went for a 10 day period including the weekend spent without sleep until i really started to notice some drastic effects such as mild hallucinations, constant laugh attacks and other effects often associated with being on a "high" which may shock some because i am a teen but i have never touched up till this point. Continuing with the point it was just an overwhelming effect and the hallucinations and other effects carried on until after the exam when we had essentially a week off which i intended to use to regain the lost sleep right before an upcoming English exam at the end of that week. However as you can probably tell by this entry English is NOT my greatest subject however i took the risk because i was bordering completely losing all sanity.

This my readers is where the problem really started because when i got home that day i headed right to my bedroom and got into bed and tried to sleep, however i couldn't, i spent hours tossing and turning with no success so i tried taking a sleeping pill and it made me a tad drowsy, but still nothing so i found this drink at my pharmacy not medical or anything but it was all natural and supposed to be a calming beverage which i thought would help and so i drank that quickly (marleys mellow mood or something) and so that helped in combination with the sleeping pill to get me a successful 8 hours which doesn't make up the weeks i spent awake so i then tried to take another sleeping pill and beverage this time the effects not as helpful and i didn't want to overdose on the pill so i decided to try smoking pot, i had done a lot of research in the drug and came to a personal conclusion that it was safe because it was just a plant and it has been linked to causing extreme fatigue however my friend had leant me his backup phone previously in case i ever needed to call him for help because he's significantly older and he knows what I'm going through however my mom found this phone and found evidence i was smoking on it so in hindsight i had no choice but to explain to my mom what was going on.

You see all those nights i spent up she wasn't aware of, she stayed up late generally but never checked on me before bed which isn't necessary i am after all 17 but i didn't and so by the way the drug did help however my mom now thinks I'm a drug addicted crack dealer and won't let me leave the house except for school and work however to those moms reading this i have one message..talk to your teenager, if they admit or appear as if they are in fact tired or constantly bombarded with homework that they stay up late for make an arrangement with the teacher as on my own time i have had to sign up for psychological help getting back into sleeping normally and i have visited doctors as in canada it is free and its just not an experience i want to repeat.

Now a lot of people say well why can't you just talk to your mom, explain what happened and your circumstances however those people dont understand that my mom can be unreasonable and will just think thats a "b.s" excuse to smoke which i obviously no longer do.