Everyone needs it, but most never seem to get an adequate amount. What is it? SLEEP!

As a student in high school or college, or a teenager with a full- or part-time job, you can probably relate well to wishing you had more time for sleep.

You wake up early during the week to get to classes on time, and then you head to various extracurricular activities or perhaps an after-school job before heading home for dinner. After dinner, you jump into your homework for the evening, or you try to steal a little time for yourself by reading or watching television first. Either way, it seems that the clock travels too fast and, before you know it, drowsiness sets in.

You now face a difficult choice. Either go to bed on time with tasks left unfinished, or fight your sleepiness to complete what you are working on and add to the growing sleep debt that you owe to your brain and body.

Most of us seem to choose the second option more regularly than the first, and society is getting sleepier as a result. According to a recent “Sleep in America” poll by the National Sleep Foundation, a staggering 60% of American adults experience sleep problems.

Think of sleep as food for your brain. Just as you need nutritious and balanced meals throughout the day to keep your body running effectively, you need consistent, quality sleep to allow your mind to function at optimum levels. Studies have shown that without proper sleep, concentration suffers, stress increases and even handling minor irritations throughout the day becomes a bothersome chore. Insufficient sleep in teenagers can lead to increased drug and alcohol use, and a South Carolina study found that teens were responsible for over half of the auto accidents caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Finally, lack of proper sleep can also suppress your immune system and make you more susceptible to sickness. The national economy actually suffers an estimated $100 billion annual loss in productivity due to absenteeism and sleepiness on the job (National Sleep Foundation).

You may ask, “Okay, how much sleep do I actually need then?” There is no “magic number” for everyone, but teenagers should aim for at least 8.5 hours each night, with 9 to 9.5 hours the ideal.

This can be difficult to accomplish consistently when faced with exams, project deadlines, school activities, household chores, etc. However, if you regularly practice some of the following tips from the National Sleep Foundation, you may be able to improve your overall health, which, in turn, will increase your chances of completing your day’s tasks!

Make sleep a daily priority. You would not normally skip breakfast and dinner and only eat lunch. By the same reasoning, do not starve your brain each day either!

Keep consistency in mind and establish a regular bedtime and waking schedule. Fight the urge to sleep in on weekends and vacations. Instead, take the hours that you would normally have slept in and use them to catch up on, or get ahead of, weekly tasks.

Plan your days and evenings ahead of time to know what time you should be in bed to get your 8.5 to 9.5 hours each night.

Use bright light in the mornings to help stimulate your brain for the day’s activities and avoid it in the evenings to help you relax before bedtime.

Avoid caffeine after lunch so when you do head to bed, you do not struggle to fall asleep.

Try to relax and unwind for a little while before going to bed. If you run around and work right up until the moment before you climb into bed, you may struggle to fall asleep and waste valuable time tossing and turning.

Avoid “all-nighters” at all costs! These may seem “necessary” at times before a big test or project, but they will only exhaust you for the next several days and wreak havoc on your sleep patterns. Besides, if lack of sleep decreases creativity, memory and concentration, what kind of product will you produce after depriving your brain of an entire night’s rest?