Opinion: Sleep: Do you get enough?

by: Caitlin Nardella
“How many hours of sleep do you get?“ was the question asked to multiple students of WHS, the answers were quite concerning.

 “About 5 hours, I usually go to bed after work and homework“. That was said during an interview with a senior in highschool, and in most of the interviews with juniors and seniors.

 Studies show that the average teenager gets about 7 hours of sleep, However, they need about 9 hours of sleep to be fully rested. 

Let's say that you get home from school at 2:15 when school ends. You have work from 4-8, that's 4 hours of work on top of 7 hours of school and then probably 1.5/2 hours of homework, that leaves you with a possible 8 hours of sleep without eating and cleaning yourself up (showering, brushing teeth, etc.), which would most likely take another hour. There is no possible way for students to be “Fully rested“. 

“Neuroscientists say they are biologically predisposed to go to sleep around midnight and not feel fully awake and engaged until between 9am and 10am.“ If a teenagers brain doesnt officially wake up until about 9:30, how are we expected to get good grades if our brain isn't even fully awake to process and retain information? Well I have the perfect solution for this issue. 
If our brains aren’t fully awake until 9:30 then we shouldn’t have school until then, schools should open later and get out earlier. Going to school for 7 hours is very non engaging and makes kids not even want to come in, like myself for example. Having 80 min classes makes it even worse, my first period class starts at 7:40 and doesn’t end till 9:09… technically my brain isn’t even awake during my whole first period! Making our school days shorter and making them start later will make not only the stress rate go up but the attendance will probably go up as well.
    

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