Not enough Zzz will result in plenty of E’s

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Salvador DelVecchio, Staff writer

The life of a student in high school is rough and rigorous, filled with stressful dilemmas and overbearing due dates as well as hours upon hours of homework.  With all of this compounded together, it makes students have a tough time finding a way to get some much needed sleep.  School finishes late and starts early: teenagers are advised to get at least 8-9 hours of sleep every night, but with homework loads and looming due dates, students hit the pillow at a very late hour and then have to get up very early to make their way back to school for the early start time.

 

Not enough sleep poses many risks to your physical and mental state.  According to the NIH (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute), “Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.”

 

Most students can drive and when they don’t get enough sleep, they are forced to drive to school drowsy raising the chances of an accident occurring on the road.  Once students arrive at school, it takes them multiple hours or classes before they are fully awake.  Teachers complain constantly about how students come into class unprepared and not engaged, when in fact these problems can be solved with less homework resulting in more sleep refreshing students for the new day.  Your brain needs a break.  When you sleep, your brain makes connections and forms pathways that help you remember things the next day.  If teachers really want to have a student learn a topic, they should should assign small assignments that take less time but still get across the main idea.

 

Lack of sleep results in poor decision making and the inability to control your emotions and behavior and increases risk taking behaviors in teens.  Teens are reckless and less sleep makes them more prone to take unnecessary risks.  Risks being; giving in to drugs or making a poor decision that could affect your life in a drastic way.

 

Not only does sleep improve your mental state, it also can rejuvenate your physical well being.  While you sleep, your heart heals itself and its blood vessels.  Lack of sleep causes an increase in heart and kidney disease because the organs of the body are getting the required amount of time during sleep to heal themselves.  Studies show that with less sleep, obesity rates rise significantly as well.

 

Schools need to realize how important sleep is and start making changes to leave students more time to get some rest.  Some solutions could be moving the start time of school to later in the morning allowing kids to sleep in or to have teachers limit homework so that students can get to bed earlier rather than later.  Sleep is a valuable thing that is taken for granted by several students not only in our student body, but all around the world.