题型:阅读理解 题类:常考题 难易度:普通
湖北省武汉市钢城第四中学2019-2020学年高二下学期英语5月考试试卷(含听力音频)
Thousands of teenagers face rising lack of sleep and the number of admissions to hospitals has been increasing over the past six years. Rating it just behind obesity (肥胖症), anxiety and mental health, experts have described it the fourth hidden health disaster for teenagers.
Data from NHS Digital show that admissions with sleep disorders among those aged 19 and under have risen from 605,200 in 2013 to 940,290 in 2019, although sleep disorders in the other age groups have fallen noticeably at the same period of time. Mandy Gurney from Millpond Sleep Clinic, a private children's sleep clinic in London, said that there was a 30% rise in sleep-related disorders among teenagers last year.
"It is a very worrying increase, especially if this rate keeps going up," Gurney said. She added that prescriptions for melatonin, a hormone (荷尔蒙) the body produces naturally in reaction to darkness and helps prepare us for sleep, had also risen. "We feel that the rise in sleep problems is very much based on anxiety — school pressure, peer pressure and, in particular, social media addiction."
Vicki Dawson, founder of the Children's Sleep Charity, said her organization was flooded by families' calls seeking help. She said the rise in sleep disorders was partly due to the blue light from screens that suppresses the production of melatonin. "We are increasingly seeing families where both parents are out working, which means that traditional bedtime routines may be rushed or abandoned all together," she said. "More often than not, children are left to the company of screens."
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