More Sleep=Happier Teacher’s and Student’s

Students+dozing+off+during+spanish+class+missing+important+material.+

Photo by Stella Kaplan

Students dozing off during spanish class missing important material.

With the tremendous amount of pressure put on teenagers to perform at peak levels it is not reasonable to expect the kids to meet their aspirations without a complete night’s. With extensive amounts of homework, demanding athletic programs, and school beginning at 8am, it is nearly impossible for kids to get the necessary amounts of sleep.

A complete nights rest is a crucial necessity for everyone’s well being.  It is even more essential for growing teenagers, who ironically are the people most deprived of sleep according to the National Sleep Foundation.  When you are sleeping, testosterone and other growth-promoting hormones are developed.  According to National Sleep Foundation: Teens and Sleep “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition”.  Therefore, if growing teenagers do not sleep they could suffer from severe growth problems.  Unfortunately, due to workload, athletics, and school schedule, less than 15 percent of teenagers get at least 8 hours of rest.

Another reason sleep is vital for teenagers is because on average they are more physically active than any other age group, thus they need more rest.  A lack of sleep can be detrimental to one’s athletic performance.  According to the Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, getting more sleep has improved teen’s athletic performance.

Starting school at least 60 minutes later would improve teenagers’ concentration and behavior.  Being a high school teacher is difficult enough and the exhaustion that kids bring to their first period class only increases the challenges that the teachers face. It is not only unfair to students but also to teachers to require school to begin at 8am.  If kids were able to have just one more hour of rest, you would see positive results in test scores, grades, and overall behavior.

In my opinion, the point of school is to support and build the foundation for teens to succeed in class and in life.  Schools are not doing this by forcing kids to cut their sleep short.  Yes, one could make the argument that kids need to go to bed earlier, but that is not possible for teenagers.  According to the UCLA sleep disorder center most teens have an extremely difficult time falling asleep at a reasonable hour.  Lack of sleep causes kids to doze off in class, lose concentration, which leads to not understanding material, and ultimately not doing their finest work.  So, if kids are going to school completely lethargic, what is the point of them coming to school at all?  Teachers say that they want to see kids thrive but in order for teenagers to do well, they need sleep!

It is a simple solution.  Make school start at 9am and end at 4:15pm.  This way, because teens don’t go to bed until so late anyway, sports will go a bit later into the evening but teens will still get just one more hour of sleep.   This does not decrease the amount of class time it just simply gives students a better foundation to be prepared for their next long day of activities and classes.