Were students right all along?

We all remember the dreadful weekday mornings in high school, struggling to get out of bed and hitting the snooze button countless times. Sleep becomes a major problem during adolescence mainly because high school students carry a heavy academic workload, participate in multiple extracurricular activities and many even have jobs. Being a high school student can be exhausting, which is why these students must get anywhere between 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep a night. Experts recommend this many hours of sleep for high school students; however, a recent study reported that seniors in high schools only averaged about 6.9 hours of sleep.

Sleep deprivation has several negative impacts on a students’ academic performance. Although many parents may applaud their child for staying up past midnight to study for a test or finish a paper, their children will most likely perform considerably worse the next day due to being sleep deprived. In order to stay awake and concentrate, many students rely on caffeinated drinks, such as soda and energy drinks, to assist them. These drinks are damaging to a teenager’s health and they are absolutely not worth the temporary benefits that they provide.

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The fact that most high schools have class begin around 7:15 is ridiculous. Even if students attempt to go to sleep early, it is quite difficult for them to wake up because “the onset of puberty produces a sleep phase delay so that teenagers find it difficult to fall asleep until 11 p.m.” (Duke TIP). High schools nationwide should strongly advocate for later starting times. The National Science Foundation reported that individual schools in 19 states have delayed start times, and over 100 school districts in 17 other states are considering making the same changes. High schools are responsible for the negative effects that sleep deprivation has on these students and it is something that they should take very seriously.

Sources:

http://tip.duke.edu/node/886

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/02/247314202/parents-of-sleep-deprived-teens-push-for-later-school-start-times

http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/teens-and-sleep

3 thoughts on “Were students right all along?

  1. Isabella Fordyce

    My high school normally started at 7:20 everyday (resulting in an alarm for me at 5:30), but a few years ago this case was brought up to officials in the district, and they implemented “late start Wednesdays”, where every other Wednesday school would start an hour later at 8:20. It only took about 7 minutes off of each class period, but I can tell you that having a couple extra minutes of homework a night to make up for it was well worth the extra hour. And because everyone was just a little more alert and awake, I felt we were more productive (or at least I was).

  2. Rebecca Sorensen

    I couldn’t agree more with this post. In high school I had to catch the bus at 6:45 AM, yet received so much homework that I was never in bed before 11, and if I was, then I was doing all my work in my classes the day it was due. I could never understand why I had to be up so early, and I never performed well during the first two or three classes I had during the day. My classes in college start at 11:15 and I always feel so awake and am able to pay much better attention. Even when I could finally drive to school I had to leave by 7, and always had to make the choice between breakfast and getting ready or more sleep. Even the earliest class offered in college is an hour later than I had to be at my high school. I really don’t understand the reason for making schools so early, especially for an age group that requires the most sleep. I love this post because it points out all the reasons why it is detrimental to high school students rather than helpful.

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