Not Enough Sleep
Here’s a look into an average high school classroom during first period. Kids are slowly shuffling in, reluctant to take their seats. Some grip their coffee cups, depending on those 2 cups of caffeine to get them through the day. Others have given up completely, with their head on the desk and a small puddle of drool forming on the desk. A majority of the kids will arrive just as the bell is rings, the ones who hit the snooze button too many times. While others who take their time in the morning, walk in just before the period ends. Why is this classroom such a dull scene? I forgot to mention it’s 7:50 in the morning and it’s a classroom full of teenagers, who are the most exhausted generation of adolescents.
A teenagers natural body clock does not coincide with our busy schedules. Our peak of energy usually does not occur until after 5 PM. Younger kids who are getting close to 10 hours of sleep enjoy their late start for school. While the sleep deprived teenagers wake up before the sunrise to catch their bus. It's too early for teenage minds to function properly...
Later school start times are scientifically proven to help teens in many beneficial ways. Teenagers and adolescents have sleep patterns. According to the article,¨ Teens and Sleep¨ Teens bodies naturally
In this article Amanda MacMillan says that "Middle and high school should start no earlier than 8:30 a.m., says the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM)." MacMillan explains that the AASM recommends that teenagers should sleep 8 to 10 hours a night. But according to the CDC, "almost 70% of high-school students report sleeping 7 hours or less on a regular basis." MacMillan names a few of the serious consequences that can teens can have if they don't get the recommended amount of sleep like depressive symptoms, obesity, risk taking behaviors and athletic injuries. She says that as children go through puberty, their brains start producing melatonin on a delayed schedule, making it hard of them to feel tired before 11 p.m. MacMillan states
A normal school day begins between 7:00 and 8:00 (Canapari). A typical wake time for students is 6 A.M. (Canapari). An average teen goes to bed between 10 and 11 (Canapari). This means that an average teen gets on average seven to eight hours of sleep when they need on average 9 ¼ hours of sleep as stated in the above paragraph. One man, Matt Gaetz stated, “The evidence is pretty one sided that high school students don’t have the same cognitive function that they have at eight or nine in the morning.” (Beaton). There are many pros to beginning the school day later. One pro is the reduced risk of teen crashes. The later start time would allow teens to be more alert while driving to school (Pro...
“Bueller?…Bueller?” The monotone history teacher appearing in the popular 1980’s film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” proceeds to take role-call in his morning history class: a positively lethargic group of students, comically struggling to stay awake. As the teacher monotonously pronounces each name on the attendance list, one student gives a deadpan stare, mouth slightly agape and eyes drooping, while another student can’t beat the fatigue and sleeps with his head on his desk as a trickle of drool escapes his mouth. While this comic scene takes place on a Hollywood set, it is not far removed from many classroom situations across the country as Aarthi Belani, a high school student from Minnesota, notes about the 7:20 a.m. chemistry class she took her junior year. “It was an ungodly hour to be studying chemistry,” she recalls with a shiver; “In the first period, 75 percent of the kids would have their heads down on their desk at one time or another” (Bettelheim 4). Students in high schools from Maine to California find it equally grueling to stay awake during their morning classes since more and more schools choose to open their doors at the crack of dawn, many around 7:30 a.m. and some as early as 7:05 a.m. Dr. James B. Maas, a sleep expert and psychology professor at Cornell University, found that on average, 20 percent of high school students are so fatigued that they sleep at some point during the school day each week (Crombie 2). That’s a lot of beat kids in this country, a fact which has countless sleep experts, lawmakers, parents and teachers alarmed by the groggy state of America’s youth. High schools in this country simply start too early. Teenagers are being forced to ignore their bodies’ natural sleep/wake patterns in...
One of the many arising problems of America’s students is they are becoming sleep deprived. The busy daily schedules of children and teens are not allowing them to get enough sleep. “Less sleep is unhealthy especially with the new research that as teenagers move through teenage years, they need increasing amounts of sleep. Nine hours per night is the necessary amount to avoid behaviors associated with sleep deprivation” (Final Report Summary, 2001). Among other things, sleep deprivation is causing students to sleep during class instead of being awake and aware. When the students are sleeping in class, they are not retaining information being taught to them. Researchers have now proven that the majority of adolescents retain more information later in the day. Contrary to this information, America’s school systems are programmed to begin early in the day, which according to the sleep rhythms of most teenagers, they should still be sleeping.
Teenagers need more sleep to go throughout the day. It has been proven multiple times that teenagers do not tend to wake up early and go to sleep later. In the article Should School Stay Early it says “They have a biological tendency to
Teens tend to have irregular sleep patterns across the week. They typically stay up late on the weekends, which can affect their biological clocks and hurt the quality of their sleep.
Have you ever felt so tired in the middle of class? A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that 70% percent of teens aren't getting enough sleep. Most people are blaming this on school times. For many students, school starts way too early and are ruining their sleep schedules and themselves in particular.
Teens are recommended to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night to be able to function to the best of their ability. A study found that only 15% of teens receive 8.5 hours on school night. According to the CDC, “Five out of six middle and high schools in the United States start the school day too early.” Most high schools start before 8:30 A.M. High schools starting too early in the morning can cause high school students to not get their necessary amount of sleep. Lack of sleep can cause harmful health effects. Not getting enough sleep can cause behavior effects such as aggressiveness and impulsivity. Not getting enough sleep can also cause you to overeat, which can lead to unhealthy weight gain. Changing the start time of high schools can assure high school students with their appropriate amount of
Adolescents all around the world stay up playing video games, playing on their phones, playing around with their friends, or cramming in an assignment that’s due the next day due to their procrastination. With all these contributing factors, sleep is the last thing on any teen’s mind. School work has a big effect on teens while trying to do it and do it right and get a good night’s sleep every night. The more and more sleep you get each night, the easier it is to get better grades in school, understand things better, and progress easier and faster. Lack of sleep can cause teens to not care thus making their effort poor on their work while their drive and motivation to learn is
Sleep! That wonderful, blissful void between last night and this morning. Sleep is one of the most basic functions of life. Nearly all creatures must sleep in order to properly carry out tasks; teenagers are no exception. The typical teenager needs an average of nine to ten hours of sleep a night in order for their brains to be capable of working at full capacity. School starts so early that they infringe upon that basic necessity. In order for teens to receive an adequate amount of sleep, it is mandatory to enact later start times for high schools across the country.
70% of high school students, like you and me, are sleep deprived; this means getting less than 7 hours of sleep. The teenage body needs relevant to 8 to 10 hours of sleep because the body is going through an important stage of growth and development. We get this sleep at delayed hours, like 11 p.m. and 12 a.m., due to chemical imbalance during our teenage years. In behalf of this delayed balance and early rising for school purposes, the body and brain are negatively impacted. The only known solution to this epidemic is schools having a later start time. Schools should start later because it could eliminate mental disorders and improve health, causing classroom grades to exceed.
According to Danny Lewin, a sleep specialist at Children’s National Health System in Washington D.C. “Adolescents have a deeply programmed biological [clock] to go to bed later and wake later.” This shows that kids naturally stay up late and wake up later. From personal experience, not too long ago I was at a track meet in Dayton, by the time our Sheridan team got back it was 11:00 pm and we were tired. The next day I’m really tired, and struggling to keep myself awake. Our growing bodies need sleep to function properly. Students are going to start feeling tired and lazy. More sleep means everything to the students, especially because of our “deeply programmed biological
Trudeau, M. (2007, January 18). High Schools Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens. NPR. Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6896471
Sleep is a fundamental need for everyone who needs sleep. Sleep is as important as eating food and drinking fluids. But teenagers are the ones seen not getting enough sleep at night. It is proven that teenagers get the minimum hours of sleep than any other age group. Teenagers are seen getting about five hours or less of sleep each night. Lack of sleep can affect many thing in a negative way. Sleep deprivation can affect things such as abilities to learn, listen, pay attention, and drive. It can also affect someone's mental health and physical health.