For most high school students across the nation, there is no sound worse than the shrill ringing of an alarm clock in the morning - a sound that often comes after a painfully long night of homework and a painfully short night of sleep. Although being tired seems to simply be a fact of life for many teenagers today, it shouldn't have to be.
Numerous studies, conducted both recently and in the past several years, have clearly shown the need for students to get a sufficent amount of sleep. According to the American Acadamy of Pediatrics (AAP), "The research is clear that adolescents who get [8.5-9.5 hours of] sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression, are less likely to be involved in automobile accidents, and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life." Additionally, almost 30% of sleep deprived students (less than 9-10 hours per night) surveyed in 2006 by the American Sleep Foundation reported falling asleep in class at least once a week (New York Times Article).
However, because of hormonal changes causing teenagers' sleep cycles to shift (go to bed late/wake up late) and extracirriculars/excessive homework keeping students up into the waking hours, it is not reasonable to simply request earlier bedtimes. Because of this, the AAP has been calling for years for schools to shift start times to at least 8:30 a.m., but still "an estimated 40 percent of high schools in the U.S. currently have a start time before 8 a.m.; only 15 percent start at 8:30 a.m. or later. The median middle school start time is 8 a.m., and more than 20 percent of middle schools start at 7:45 a.m. or earlier."
All of this research has been made very clear to high schools nationwide, so why does it seem like everyone is as sleep deprived as they've always been? And since it is clear that starting school later can't completely fix "one of the most common – and easily fixable – public health issues in the U.S.," what more can be done?
I thought the results the statistics you mentioned about sleep-deprived teenagers were interesting--and scary. From experience I think all high school students can agree that the majority of kids in high school do not get enough sleep. "I'm so tired" and "I just want to go to sleep" are things that I hear my friends say--and I say--almost every day at school. I think starting schools even later and enforcing it would definitely help this problem. Also, the main thing keeping kids up on school nights is homework--so either kids are getting too much homework or are procrastinating until late, or a mixture. Either way this problem can be fixed: less homework can be assigned, and/or schools could try to teach time management to kids before they are in high school to prepare them for it (depending on what the main problem with homework is). Hopefully this problem will be fixed sometime soon, since clearly people are aware of it.
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with both you and Jesi. Sleep deprivation is a serious problem that teens face, and there is no doubt it has an effect on their everyday behavior and performance. I definitely don't get enough sleep each night, but with sports, clubs, meals, and homework, there is simply no way for me to get 9-10 hours. Our school, as well as many other schools, need to respond to this issue. The easiest solution I can think of is giving less homework. As long as the material is taught in class and the homework is just a short review of what is taught, students shouldn't struggle to grasp the concepts. In fact, they would probably understand the material better since they would be getting enough time to rest their brains each night.
I would entirely agree that homework is the main issue with sleep deprivation for high schoolers. While I obviously see the positives in teachers assigning homework, like learning how to manage time, it's up to a certain point. I think for a lot of kids it teaches them how to bs an assignment they don't have time for. Sites like Sparknotes are so popular among students because a lot of them genuinely don't have the time to do their assigned reading. I think teachers need to ease up the homework load if they care about their students having a healthy life style.
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post! Personally, I often catch myself yawning or saying "I'm just so tired!" in school almost daily, and I am sure as the school year progresses there will be at least one moment where I'm functioning off of four hours of sleep or less. The only problem I see with the AAP's solution to yawning teenagers is the fact that they want to make school start later in the day. If school starts later in the day, this means that it will also have to end later in the day, leaving little or no room for extracurricular activities or school-free time. If school ended at 4:30 PM instead of 3:30 PM, for example, all of our activities would be pushed back, leaving little time for doing homework, leading to a later bedtime, which would make teenagers sleepy during school. It's a vicious cycle! If I take into account how long sports practice goes (around an hour and a half) I would probably be starting homework at 7:00 PM or later. I wish that the AAP's solution would be effective, but I'm not entirely sure how practical it is.
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