This is one of the three essays that recently went into my Composition Honors portfolio. You can tell I did not spend much time on it...

Most students have complained about sleeping problems at least once in their lives, but why? What would make these achievers so prone to insomnia, or just not have enough time to sleep? Where does all of their time go, if indeed hours prove responsible? What could teenagers possibly have to do to lose sleep over?

Perhaps not the question what they must do, but what they choose, appears more appropriate. Stress seems a demanding issue these days. Whether over sports, grades, assignments, or chores, teenagers do not exactly have a light workload. Speaking of which, work can also produce its own stress magnet. Staying up late trying to give the final touches on that rather difficult essay, or waking before dawn to squeeze those extra math problems in, does not prove an extraordinary way to get things done. Students tend to stay up the night of an exam to get some last minute cramming in, hoping that their sleeping state will absorb what they need to know for tomorrow’s test. Many benefactors contribute to the sleeplessness of adolescents and adults alike, but is school the only reason?

One can not solely blame a person’s studies on their insufficient amount of sleep. What if their beloved boyfriend suddenly finds himself behind bars? Or maybe a little brother of a half sister lays immobile on his death bed, because he thought his friend’s life seemed more important than his own. Maybe even their older sister, whom resides with them, decided to have a child six months prior, and now its teeth want to come in. Perhaps the adolescent’s parents seem about ready to wring each other’s necks and after twenty years think a divorce might work, but then change their minds and continue to fight instead. Grievances act as another tumultuous problem in the aspect of sleep, or rather lack-there-of.

Sometimes friends, more so than family, can make a huge impact on a teenager’s life. Gossip, fights, and all the other nitty gritty little stuff, compensate for everything else. Wondering if a best friend decided they had enough puts that lurking unease in the back of someone’s mind. What if work wants a person even longer than usual, and that person did not have a sufficient amount of time throughout the day to do as planned? Life in general can put forth enough problems, whether physical, mental, or emotional, to stagger anyone.

Everybody just cares too much. If a person did not care about everyone, or everything else, people would get more time to themselves. More time to rest those weary bones from the drudgeries of everyday existence. Lack proves not the issue; the person them self endangers their own health and well being, the rest prove just excuses.