The other night, as I was completing my English reading, I looked at my clock: It read 12:00 a.m. I desperately wanted to go to sleep, but I still had work to do for my chemistry and history classes. I ended up finishing all of my homework by 2:00 a.m. The next day, I fought through fatigue. With only five hours of sleep, I even struggled to keep my eyes open during my 8:45 a.m. class.
These late-night study sessions are a reality for many high school students. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), eight of every ten teens do not get enough sleep. Students often sacrifice sleep for school, extracurricular activities and work. However, quality sleep is vital for adolescents, playing a key role in supporting healthy brain development, emotional state, learning and memory.
According to the Stanford Medicine News Center, sleep deprivation damages a student’s ability to concentrate which hinders performance in the classroom. Tiredness can also cause anxiety, driving incidents and suicidal ideations.
Depression is also a common consequence of poor sleep. According to an NSF study, teens who have trouble falling or staying asleep two or more nights a week experience significantly more depressive symptoms than those who get enough sleep. Teens who get the NSF-recommended eight to ten hours of sleep on school nights experience significantly fewer depressive symptoms. Additionally, the study found that students who start school before 8:30 am have more depressive symptoms than those who start school later than 8:30 a.m.
Even for students who get eight or more hours of sleep, it is often not enough. “I think I get enough sleep. I just don’t feel rested,” sophomore Saida Debgupta said.
Students lose focus in class when they are tired. “I’m focusing on other things,” freshman Nia Jones said, “focusing on sleep or thinking about anything else other than doing my work because I’m tired.” We might think we are productive when sacrificing our sleep, but, in reality, we are actually damaging our brains in the long run.
I often end up sacrificing sleep on Sunday nights to finish studying because I chose to spend some of my weekend with friends. For many of us, it’s hard to find a balance between managing school, activities and social life all while also getting enough rest. We shouldn’t have to choose one over the others.
There are other factors that also play a role in students’ lack of sleep that can’t be easily resolved by better time management. For junior Doug Waller, his hour-long commute to school in the mornings takes away from his sleep. “I have a bad mood and feel irritated,” Waller said of his lack of sleep. A student who lives five minutes away from GDS is in a much better position to get eight hours of sleep than a student who lives over an hour away.
The school could shorten classes to 55 minutes instead of the current 70-minute classes. With this schedule shift, the school day could finish an hour earlier, allowing students more time to study, socialize and participate in extracurriculars. Students would then be able to go to sleep earlier.
If the school day were to end earlier, everyone’s morning routines would remain the same. Parents would not have to dramatically shift their child’s transportation to school in the morning. While some students might choose to not study if they had more free time, many students would likely spend the time studying since that is what most often keeps us up.
We have the ability to push for a schedule change to allow for more sleep: Math teacher Jason Aigen recently sought student feedback on the current schedule. In fact, the high school already adjusted its schedule for a later start time. Before the fall of 2020, high school classes started at 8:15 a.m. Now, classes begin at 8:45 a.m.
“[The schedule change] happened because of the research,” Director of Student Community Programming and neuroscience teacher Bobby Asher said. “We have known, but we know even more now, through research and psychology and in neuroscience, that adolescents’ sleep cycle is different than kids’ and adults’.”
Yet Asher was hesitant to support another schedule change. “Schools themselves have constraints. Many parents have jobs. It’s not like we can just start school at 11:00,” Asher said. While it is true that it might be difficult to adjust the school’s schedule, GDS should continue to make an effort to help students get the rest that they need. Either through a schedule change or lessening homework loads, the school needs to promote healthy sleep for all students.