My name is Alex and I’m 18 years old. I graduated from Eastside College Prep. and will be attending Santa Clara University in the fall.  For my final senior project I had to research a topic and present it in front of the student body. I decided to focus on how sleep affects adolescent development because I lacked sleep a lot and wanted to find out how this affected my body.

I asked myself, “Does sleep really play a big role in your body?”

As I started my research, I was surprised to see how important sleep really is. I reviewed and analyzed charts that revealed how lack of sleep can increase the risk of someone developing type 2 diabetes. I was shocked. I did not know that all those times when I stayed up accumulating lack of sleep, I was actually increasing my risk of obtaining type 2 diabetes.

Not only does lack of sleep increase the risk of diabetes, but it also increases one’s appetite. I noticed that once one lacks sleep, a chain reaction occurs. If one has chronic sleep loss, the chain grows, causing one to have an increased appetite for calorie-dense foods with high carbohydrate content. As one eats more because of lack of sleep, they have a higher risk of weight gain. And if this weight gain is excessive, then it may lead to more severe health consequences such as type 2 diabetes. 

If you want to learn more about lack of sleep please visit these sites:

Lack of Deep Sleep May Increase Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Sleep Tips: Get Your Teen Some Zzzzs