(March 8, 2012) — When an abnormal act is performed routinely out of necessity, it soon becomes normal, and what used to be normal transforms into an unobtainable luxury. Such is the case with teenagers and their sleep-deprived lives. Teenagers need 9.2 hours of sleep every night, according to American Psychological Association, and yet the majority of them sleep much less than that. Moreover, sleep deprivation in teenagers can make them, among other things, susceptible to depression and ADHD. It can also increase the chances of getting poor grades. The negative effects of sleep deprivation are too many to mention, and too frightening to bear reading, but it doesn’t take a genius to recognize the importance of sleeping for teenagers. A basic course in psychology is, in fact, all it takes. But, if getting enough sleep is that important, and if it’s that easy to recognize and acknowledge its need in the developing years of a teenager, then why don’t we sleep adequately? Why, of course, the answer is schoolwork. That may sound like a classic excuse for poor time management skills—which are generally associated with teenagers—but it isn’t. The phrase “sound mind in a sound body” has lost its place in our overly-competitive and busy lives. Its meaning has vanished from the visage of our world, and its message tarnished. We have instead adopted commonly unspoken, yet widely believed and abhorrently wrong axioms such as “successful people don’t sleep,” or “sleeping is a waste of time,” or even worse, “adults don’t sleep that much.” Yet, it is scientifically proven that teenagers’ sleeping needs ought not be compared to those of adults. We pride ourselves in exchanging tales of “all-nighters” with our peers. We are willing to jeopardize our physical and mental well-being to make ourselves appear as qualified as possible for the colleges. We overload ourselves with AP classes, so we can create a schedule filled with rigorous and diverse coursework. Some of us volunteer, intern or work so we can fortify our resumes even further. We join extracurricular activities of all sorts to enhance our standing to a fuller degree. But, we do all these things for what cost? The cost of physical, mental and emotional deterioration? The cost of estrangement from our peers, and avoidance of social events? Or the cost of lost times and teenage years that will never return? But, of course, we believe it’s worth it. Or, at least, we’ve been told that it’s worth it. The sad part of this type of mentality is that we may not be capable of facing defeat and disappointment, after putting all of our efforts into trying to get accepted to a university of our choice. Instead, we need to learn to embrace the sad and defeatist truth that not everyone who tries succeeds at the end. And at this point one might realize that he had it all wrong from the beginning; that the costs were greater than the benefits, if there were any at all.