According to the CDC, teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep everyday. They state that if teens do not get enough sleep, they are at a higher risk for things like poor mental health, diabetes, and behavioral problems.
A study done in 2015 by CDC found that for every 10 high school students, 7 of them do not sleep enough.
How does this affect the students here?
I surveyed 13 students. Four students said they wake up sometime between 4-5 a.m. Another four said they wake up between 5-5:30. Two said 5:30-6:00, and the final three said 6-6:30.
After asking these same students what time they go to sleep this was my result.
Two people told me they go to sleep between 9-9:30 p.m. Three people said 9:30-10. I had three people say they went to bed around 11-11:30. The final two responded with 12-1 a.m. Using this data, let’s assume that Student A woke up at 5:30 and went to sleep at 10:30. That gives them seven hours of sleep. That is considered by the CDC to not be enough.
According to KidsHealth, teens getting less than enough sleep are more likely to be depressed and have issues with schoolwork.
The answer to this problem may seem simple. Why don’t we just go to sleep earlier?
“We have too much work and stress,” Rylie Deters (9) said. Deters says she goes to bed between 12-1 a.m. and she wakes up at 6 a.m. That gives her 5-6 hours of sleep each night, leaving her waking up without feeling energized.
Izzy Mateo (10), on the other hand, does believe that it is possible to get all nine hours of sleep. She goes to bed around 10 pm and wakes up around 5 a.m. Mateo goes home, does her chores and homework, and she watches her friends’ games. Mateo manages to do this all and still get close to the right amount of sleep. If we changed the schedule, that could allow for students to have more time to sleep without having to change their nightly routines.
If we started school at 8 a.m. instead of 7:15 a.m., every student could get up to 45 more minutes of sleep. That would allow Deters to sleep for almost 7 hours, and it would allow Mateo to sleep for closer to 8 hours. This would help them wake up feeling much more energized. The more sleep we allow students to get, the better they will do in school and extracurricular activities. Teens would come to school in a better mood, and they would be less at risk for major health problems.
Would you prefer a later start to your school day?
