The Sleep-Deprived Debater
Mira, 16, joins her school's debating team. For three weeks she sleeps about 5 hours per night during the week and 9 hours on weekends, and drinks two energy drinks most afternoons. She reports racing thoughts at 11 pm, difficulty waking, and irritability in class. Her teachers notice she is articulate but loses her train of thought mid-sentence. A friend says Mira is 'just a night owl'. Her GP finds no medical condition. Mira's parents want her to quit debating, which she loves, and her coach says she is the best speaker in years.
1. Identify and justify the biological and psychological factors contributing to Mira's sleep pattern, and explain how the psychological factor could become a maintaining factor.
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Biological: delayed circadian phase in adolescence means melatonin release occurs later, so her 11 pm racing thoughts fit a shifted sleep-wake cycle rather than a disorder. Afternoon energy drinks add caffeine, which has a half-life of several hours, further delaying sleep onset. Psychological: her high motivation and anxiety about performing well on the debating team create pre-sleep cognitive arousal - she rehearses arguments in bed, which conditions the bed to wakefulness. Maintaining factor: because she sleeps poorly, she uses more caffeine and rehearses more to compensate, and the weekend 9-hour catch-up shifts her rhythm later again, so the cycle repeats. This is a bidirectional, not a single-cause, explanation.
2. Mira's parents propose removing debating. Evaluate this proposal using concepts of sleep hygiene and psychological wellbeing, and recommend an alternative.
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Removing debating would reduce one stressor but also remove a major source of competence and belonging, risking lowered mood and resentment, and it does not address caffeine or the shifted rhythm. Better: keep debating while applying sleep hygiene - no caffeine after 2 pm, a consistent wake time even on weekends (within one hour), a wind-down routine that moves rehearsal out of bed to a desk earlier in the evening, and bright light in the morning. These target the maintaining factors while preserving the protective factor. A judgement call: the exam rewards linking each recommendation to a named mechanism, not listing sleep tips.