Hello, readers!

After a brief period of stagnation in my research, I decided to focus on a broader aspect of my topic. Mostly driven by my own distorted sleep habits, I began to research how teens cope with sleep deprivation, or poor-quality sleep. I have been a night-owl for as long as I remember, and no longer being required to wake up early for school, I have seen myself sleep as late as I ever have, but with no significant consequence, since I usually work night-shifts at my job. However, being shifted into the morning routine, my sleep pattern has taken a toll on my productivity, as was be expected. I continued intentionally sleeping less than suggested for my age group (with the suggestions coming from medical sources, such as the NIH and APA), with the intention of exploring first-hand  the different methods that are often used by sleep-deprived teens to get through their days--more specifically, caffeine. For the the past few days, I have relied on coffee to energize my day at work. Given that I have never been fond of coffee or highly-caffeinated drinks, the increase in intake has been mostly gradual.

As a result, my days have felt more exhausting than most. The days followed a similar pattern, with an energy crash around 2 pm, and another soon after work ended, at around 5 pm.  Thus, my sleep schedule was only reinforced by the high caffeine intake; after not consuming more caffeine, I almost involuntarily fell asleep until around 9 pm, meaning I was wide awake for the duration of the night. Doing so, returning to a regular sleep cycle was relatively difficult. Consequently, my productivity dropped as a result. This shows the dangers of high-volume caffeine consumption, which according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, is a common feat among around 60% of teenagers.

With the negative effects of high coffee consumption, this shows the direct and indirect effects of sleep deprivation. Although there are already more healthy alternatives already available, such as other types of foods, and exercise, those may require lifestyle changes, and are therefore less appealing to certain types of people. This is where I believe that pet influence can positively impact sleep quality. Although the amount of sleep is not affected by the pets, the period of sleep may be more refreshing. For instance, Dr. Krahn's research points that the presence of the pets can decrease the amount of time for the owner to fall asleep, and contrary to popular belief, have less significant interruptions during their sleep. Also, dog ownership specifically leads to exercise in the morning. Walking the dog in the morning can serve as a replacement to coffee, or at least lead to a decrease in the dose of coffee.

With the effects of sleep deprivation in mind, next week I will return to analyzing data-points to determine the impact of a pet on an individual's sleep quality.

Until next week!