Junior Theme

For Junior Theme I am researching sleep deprivation and stress. My main question is "Why are Americans so reluctant to see sleep as productive?" It is a very interesting topic, especially since walking around the halls of New Trier the majority of the people you see are sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation is a main cause of obesity, leading into type II diabetes and heart disease, depression, and cancer. A main problem we have is staying away from artificial light. There are normal light-dark cycles our bodies have been trained to go through for centuries, eating more in the long summer days to prepare for the famine of winter. Artificial light allows us to stay up late, night after night, and we trick our bodies into believing we are in an eternal summer. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Problem is when we never get to hibernate and sleep off all the extra food we're eating, we gain weight and become unhappy, irritable, and sick. Yet we think this just means we need to exercise more. Quite to the contrary, mon ami. Sleeping will solve all of your problems. Well, almost all.