Right before I left for school this morning, I glanced at the Chicago Tribune. I saw an article that talked about a recent incident at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. At around 2:40 am on Monday morning, a blue line train derailed in the underground station at the airport and drove up one of the escalators, before it came to a halt. There were more than 30 people injured, but none of the injuries were considered life threatening. According to officials, had the accident occurred at any other time of day aside from just past midnight, that would have been a different story.
The headline I read was talking about the possible causes of the accident. One of the reasons they were investigating was whether or not the driver of the train fell asleep while it was running. This happened very early in the morning, so it is definitely a possibility - I mean, who isn't tired at 2 am? But, this got me thinking about the amount of sleep people get, especially teenagers. Even though a teenager was not driving the train, I saw a clear connection between this incident and the amount of sleep recommended for certain ages.
According to sleepfoundation.org, "Teens need about 9 1/4 hours of sleep each night to function best", but the article also says that "only 15% [of students] reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights". Now, speaking from experience, I can safely say that I do not get 9 hours of sleep - no where close to it. Usually I get around 7, because I have activities and sports after school, but I also have hours of homework to do. In fact, almost every high school student I know will not get the necessary 9 hours. Teachers try to engrain this idea in your head that sleep is most important, especially in grade school. But once you grow up, at least for me, I quickly realized that the likelihood of me getting enough sleep was slim.
So, without any research to back it up, I am going to guess that this lack of sleep transfers into adulthood as well, and adults need more sleep than they get. Because of this, things like the derail of this train will happen, which is very dangerous. And not only for trains, but things like this could happen while people are behind the wheel of a car as well. I have no proposed solution to this problem of lack of sleep, but do any of you? Also, I know there are many factors contributing to this problem, but what do you think is the biggest or most important?
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