Have you ever woken up in the morning and considered going back to bed? Many teenagers feel the strain of homework and after school activities which result in them going to bed later and later. However, the start times of schools just get earlier and earlier. What’s the result? Sleepy youths with barely enough brain power to get dressed for school.
While in previous studies it was proposed that early beginnings in schools help students’ education, it is now being reevaluated to show even greater evidence that children will be able to work more productively getting more sleep.
Students should get about nine hours of sleep, but with the daily excursions of being a teenager, many only get around five or six! Researchers posed ideal sleep times (from eleven- eight-thirty) for kids but many of these students will sleep later and get up earlier due to the philosophy “the early bird gets the worm!”
Administrators may resist such an idea as it will be much work to change the whole schedule, however, the benefits greatly outway the costs. Students will be more productive, they will be able to function later, and the stress of waking up early and memorizing data while it’s still dark out will merely be a thing of the past.
Sleep is divided into five stages, one, two, three, four and REM sleep. While these cycles occur for only ninety-one hundred fifteen minutes, there is generally more that one cycle where as the night goes on, stage four time will decrease while REM cycle time increases. When children are deprived of sleep, their sleep patterns are disrupted and will change the next time they doze off. This causes lethargy and insomnia.
I believed that this was the article that I would share because I feel like everybody wants to get another hour of sleep in. No matter if it’s the all-nighter, the early bird, or the average joe, no matter how old you are the extra hour is like a heavenly blessing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/11/why-high-schools-should-let-kids-sleep-in/
I agree I feel that I do not get enough sleep because of homework, test, sports, and volunteering. I average around 4 hours of good sleep and always consider not getting up at all and staying home to sleep the rest of the day. It would be nice to have an extra hour of sleep time and maybe even two so and extend the school hours later into the night that would help everyone out without the loss of sleep time or school time.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most overlooked causes for failure in school is a lack of sleep. Without enough sleep, we all get tired in classes, causing us to unintentionally doze off once in a while. For our district, I think the time that most people sleep ranges from 11-2. Because of all the difficult classes, excessive homework, and clubs that we take, it is very difficult to sleep early. Altogether, I think because of the caliber of our school and the difficulty of the courses we take, it is hard to get 9 hours of sleep every day.
ReplyDeleteI think I might be one in a small fraction of the students at school who get less than 5 hours of sleep daily. It definitely impacts my mood and my overall performance at school. I'm more of a night owl, so I find myself most productive when it's quiet and dark. I procrastinate a lot during the day, and I don't do much schoolwork until very late at night, when I can focus. This usually leads me to sleep at impractical times such as 2 or even 3 in the morning. More often than not, I find myself going to sleep in classrooms when I'm not actively participating. I read in an article that adults need less sleep than adolescents do, since their minds are developing less than the average teenager. Yet, we're still required to wake up extremely early and slog through school. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about that, other than changing starting times for school. :c
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think getting the proper amount of sleep is important and shown in energy levels. I have noticed when I sleep later and wake up earlier I may power through the day, but I am already drowsy and ready to sleep around 7 pm! I think another thing that might help with feeling better in the morning is getting to bed at around the same time and doing a "before bed ritual" to help ease into sleeping if you are feeling a bit like an insomniac. This was a great thought provoking article, it got me thinking about changing my sleeping patterns!!
ReplyDeleteThis article and many others out there continually show society that as teenagers trying to develop, we need better sleep than most others. Sleep has a large impact on a person the next day whether it be sleeping in class or failing a test due to lack of sleep. There can be many consequences to not having enough sleep and as a society, we need to find feasible ways to improve the amount of sleep that a teenager gets. Sleep is time for the body to grow and relax and without proper sleep, we can not grow to our full potential which nobody wants.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, whenever I wake up, I just fall back into my bed, until my alarm starts again from the snooze button, and do not feel like doing anything. While on the other hand, on weekends, I get a hour or two more sleep and feel amazing, and am much more effective. This also affects me in my morning class, I feel like I do better in afternoon classes, but struggle in morning classes.
ReplyDeleteThis really got me thinking back to the sessions that Dr. Rudderman gave us during class every marking period. She told us as we were maturing, the times that we would be "awake" and active in class, would be optimized mid morning around 10 o'clock. She told us how, naturally, we don't really start to feel the effects of drowsiness until about 11 p.m. However, I personally do prefer having school earlier than later.
ReplyDeleteHaving friends in Texas who start the day much later than we do, I agree that allowing students to have more sleep is very beneficial - the idea has even been endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. In fact, Finland, with one of the best educational systems in the world, only has school until noon! This article has only served to confirm my suspicions that making students get up as early as 5 a.m. is no help to their education.
ReplyDeleteI remember when school used to start at 8:30 as opposed to 7:40. I would have time to eat a complete breakfast, watch T.V., sleep 9 hours, and a whole bunch of other luxurious things that I overlooked as a 3rd grader. Now with school starting so early in the morning for middle school and high school students, teens tend to miss key parts of a healthy morning routine like eating breakfast (I know I do), so personally I would be all for starting school later, and finishing later in the day if it meant being well rested, and not hungry/moody.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with all the students who commented and you, Elyse. Obviously sleep is necessary. But I think the administration should not change school timings. I think school timings are appropriate and we, as students, should be able to manage our own time and prioritize. I remember staying up ALL night for a project because I didn't prioritize and basically underestimated the project. Every time I observe, it has always been my fault. All we need is proper time management and speed and obviously, SLEEP!
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this up Elyse. Many students in our school are unfortunately sleep deprived.