According to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital website, teenagers need between nine and nine-and-a-half hours of sleep. However, on average, most students are only getting seven to seven-and-a-quarter hours.
Edward Ertel, a Jennings County High School counselor, said a lack of sleep in students is common, and often due to stress.
“It is unfortunately becoming the norm because there are so many extra stressors teenagers have to deal with today that they didn’t in the past. The stressors are bigger than they have ever been,” Ertel said.
If teenagers know they are exhausted in school, why are they not getting more sleep at night? When someone hits puberty, their internal clock is set back by two hours! The early start times of high school paired with a broken internal clock means students struggle to keep up with a healthy sleep schedule.
Sleep deprivation negatively impacts cognitive ability, such as problems with memory, decision making and reaction time.
Ertel said it’s important for students to find balance in their lives and that exercise is important in dealing with stress.
Here’s a typical day for a Jennings County High School student. Wake up at 6:30 a.m. in order to get ready for school, eat breakfast and collect your things. At 8:25 a.m. the first bell rings.
By the end of the day, you are tired and hungry. You want to go home but cannot because you have work until 9:30 p.m. You arrive home around 10 p.m., ready to lay down. Except, you have homework that is due tomorrow.
A poll of public high school teachers showed that they give about three-and-a-half hours of homework every night.
Students don’t always work until 10 p.m. Sometimes they have sports or after school activities that put them out by 6 p.m., allowing homework to be done by 9:30 p.m.
At the end of the day, we all want the best for our fellow classmates. We ask only one thing of our parents and teachers: consideration. Consider the plate that we have in front of us.
Gracie Miller is a senior at Jennings County High School.
