BY: CLAIRE KIM
Based on a study done by the National Sleep Foundation, we can determine the appropriate amount of sleep that is recommended for us based on our age group. On average results show that most children should be getting approximately 9 to 11 hours of sleep, most teenagers should be getting approximately 8 to 10 hours of sleep, and most young adults should be getting approximately 7 to 9 hours of sleep. To some, these numbers may seem rather normal and obvious, however, for others, it may seem quite shocking. Personally, I can admit that I do not follow the recommended amount of sleep for my age as I tend to sleep for only 6 hours although I am only a teenager. Although I am aware of my problematic habit of going on my phone late at night and finding it acceptable to wake up really early in the morning, I can’t help but continue this pattern. Like all habits, they are extremely hard to break, however, for me especially, I have trained myself at a young age to maintain this sleep schedule so it’s pretty much gonna stay with me for the rest of my life. Whether it’s because I have a lot of work to get done or if I simply want to explore around online, I constantly sleep later than 11, with occasional moments at 1 in the morning. It’s pretty bad. I have tried countless methods that have encouraged me to sleep earlier, but most of them have proven useless. When I heard that Apple arranged this new feature called “Bedtime” in the Clock App, I wasn’t really interested because I knew it was going to be just as useless as all the other apps and methods I have tried. However, after seeing some amazing reviews on this lifestyle change, I’m actually quite excited to try this feature out. According to New York Times, it works somewhat as a sleep tracker as it totals how much time you spend outside your sleep schedule range directly notifying you where you stand in the Sleep Analysis Chart in the Health App of our phones. In a way, with us being notified constantly how unhealthy we are becoming, it could be a good trigger for us to sleep earlier and wake up at a reasonable time because we feel guilty ruining ourselves. However, at the same time, though this app does show a more direct approach, I don’t know if it will make that much of an impact for those who have already pretty much adapted themselves to an unhealthy sleep cycle. Because they won’t find the motivation to keep this process going, in the end, they would just turn the setting off and never use it again.
claire kim. 