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Unveiling the Sleep Crisis: Implications for Adolescent Health,
Academic Performance, and Policy Reform
I. Introduction

1. Background & Motivation

Spending almost ⅓ of our entire lives sleeping, we could not give a definite answer on why
we do it, and what it is for. Ever since the establishment of human civilization, sleep seems to be the
most foolish biological phenomenon ever invented. When we sleep, we cannot work, eat, reproduce,
or even protect ourselves. Then, what function does it serve? However, is it really due to sleep that
serves no beneficial function, or is it due to society’s apathy toward sleep that all scientific research
resulted in vain? Yet, sleep has persisted. Throughout history, every aspect of humans or animals
studied, all dates to sleep. Daily performance, mental health, and even drowsy driving-you name it.
Sleep evolves with life itself on our planet. This simply implies the subsequent perseverance of
sleep throughout human evolution means there are some magical things or astounding benefits sleep
gives off while evolution itself did not make a spectacular blunder in conceiving of sleep.

Recognizing the crucial role of sufficient sleep in bolstering adolescents' mental well-being
and academic performance, we delved into this issue, astutely realizing its pertinence to our lives
and the gravity of its implications. As high school students, we observed that many of our peers are
sleep-deprived, with almost all of them getting less than 8 hours of sleep. Consequently, we've
noticed a pervasive sense of drowsiness in class, especially during the early periods, making it
challenging to concentrate and start the day alertly. This observation underscores the gravity of
recognizing these issues and advocating for change within our community.

2. Research Purposes

This research wanted to highlight the trend of sleep habits of adolescents for Taiwanese
students to illustrate the inadequacy of sleep time in schools. Alternatively, this research also
wanted to point out the benefits sleep could give, where most school policies are conflicting with a
good night sleep. Thus, underscoring the importance of having sufficient sleep, this study comes
with providing the reason behind inadequate sleeping and proving the causal relationship between a
good night's sleep and its effect on mental health and academic achievements, as it is also a crucial
step to persuade society to make changes in school start time. More importantly, this study also
wanted to advocate for effective strategies to promote healthy sleep habits. This could be supported
by illustrating how postponing school start time could provide more academic benefits, which
includes providing a tangible and standardized school schedule for all schools to follow in Taiwan.

II. Literature Review

Currently, a multitude of studies already points out to the benefits of efficient sleep.

A. National Library of Medicine

The meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating the relationship
between sleep quality and mental health reveals significant findings. Across 65 trials involving 72
interventions and 8,608 participants, improving sleep quality led to notable improvements in mental
health outcomes. Specifically, interventions targeting sleep improvement showed medium-sized
effects on composite mental health, depression, anxiety, and rumination, with small-to-medium
effects on stress and small effects on positive psychosis symptoms. Additionally, a dose-response
relationship was observed, indicating that greater improvements in sleep quality correlated with

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