* The 2014-2015 senior student signature series features area senior class students – and their own “signature” outlooks on a topic of their choice. A new outlook will be posted on Cross-Counties Connect each Friday. The series opens with point of view comments by seniors from Mountain Lake Public High School. The opinions can be found by clicking on the Family & Faith link on the website’s header, and scrolling down to, and clicking on, Outlook. Their teachers are Brenda Feil and Kim Syverson.
The Student and the Snooze
Beep! Beep! Beep! I frantically rummage around to hit the snooze. Ten minutes later, Beep! Beep! Beep! I hit the snooze again. This is what a common morning for most high schoolers is like. Even though sleep is food for the brain and something we cannot live without, very few teens are getting the recommended 9.25 hours of sleep a night. Many factors of a student’s lifestyle are responsible for their shortage of sleep, including school start time, homework, sports, and our inability to fall asleep to get the recommended amount of sleep a night. I believe pushing our school start time back even an hour would help students get the recommended amount of sleep during the school year.
Everybody– from morning people to night owls– have a biological clock. Teens’ biological clocks are programmed so that we fall asleep later and sleep in longer. According to the National Sleep Foundation, the regular sleep period for adolescents is 11:00 p.m.-8:15 a.m., which is impossible with an 8:10 a.m. start time for school. Most students wake up around 7:00 a.m., if not earlier, pushing our amount of sleep back to 8 hours, causing us to feel sleepy in class and unable to focus. A later school start time would help students get more sleep.
In addition, we have the opportunity to be part of many extracurricular activities, but we cannot physically do them all and get the required amount of sleep. Sports activities can keep us out past 10 o’clock at night. Then we come home and do hours of homework, which can easily keep us up as late as midnight if not later. We also have activities in the morning, such as show choir, morning practice, or for some even work. Some students may see the only solution to their lack of sleep is to drop an activity or work, and this could be detrimental to students’ physical health or earnings. Keeping these commitments could be much easier if all activities started at a later time, which would require school to start later.
Sleep deprivation affects us in many ways. One of the biggest problems is the negative effect it has on our memory, decision making, and creativity, according to Nationwide Children’s neurosciences center. Lack of sleep also slows down our metabolism. A study by Mary Carskado, a professor at Brown University, showed that the kids in her study who slept for only four hours a night for six consecutive nights had insulin levels that were the same as those of people in early stages of diabetes. Her studies have also shown that lack of sleep heightens our release of the hormone ghrelin, the hormone that makes us feel hungry, and lowers the release of the hormone leptin, which creates a sense of feeling full. Many studies prove that lack of sleep is another cause for childhood obesity. Being tired can also cause us to be cranky and agitated and makes it very difficult for us to regulate our mood.
A good night of sleep keeps our brain development on track, which is very important during the teen years. As students we need to be on top of our game to be able to complete all of our assignments. Moving our school start time to 9:00 in the morning would allow students to get the recommended amount of sleep and kick the desire to take a nap during class. As a result, a later start time would allow students to stay involved in sports, keep our brain development on track, and hopefully keep students involved in extracurriculars and work.
Considering students’ crazy schedules, an hour more of sleep a night would help us wake up refreshed and keep our brains on track. I feel this will keep us eager to achieve in both school and our extracurriculars and hopefully better prepare us for our future endeavors.