Why are so many middle school and high school students having trouble functioning or cooperating throughout the school day? According to the CDC. Gov, in New Jersey, over 80% of students are sleep-deprived. This is a significant problem for teens’ education and health. Many people are wondering why some teens don’t get enough sleep, and why they don’t go to bed. Well, there’s a bit of a twist on why they don’t, and when you hear it, it makes sense.
Around the world, many teenagers have complained that there is way too much homework on days that they have sports and family stuff. Not only teens, but young kids can be sleep-deprived as well. Most of the time, these effects start showing when kids are in school, at home in bed, and throughout their day. The outside activities kids do can end early, but sometimes they don’t. So, because there isn’t an accurate set ending time, others don’t know when they get home.
I didn’t know much about staying up late for homework, so I asked someone who relates to this.
Seventh grader Samanya Panda claims she gets an average of 4-8 hours of sleep each night, and says that she has a similar experience to what others are facing. She also states that, “ Sometimes teachers don’t understand that we have outside-of-school activities, and occasionally don’t have time to do the homework”.
What Samanya is referring to is something I sometimes can relate to. Although teenagers have sports and lots of outside activities on school nights, many teens don’t know the impact it will have on them, especially because their brains are still developing.
I asked fellow 7th-grader Arya Sontag what she thinks about all of this. She claims she receives 7-8 hours of sleep every night, even when doing her activities. She also states her opinion on whether she thinks teenagers get enough sleep.
“ I don’t think teens get enough sleep because they are constantly on their phones, doing homework, or on other electronics late at night, which is bad, and the blue light can cause sleep deprivation.”
She also agrees that sleep is very important and causes you to grow, stay healthy, and be energized.
In closing, she remarks, “I think homework keeps me up at night the most, because I’m really busy most of the week and I often find myself trying too hard on a basic assignment. I also read on my Kindle a lot, and sometimes if I have a good book or something, I don’t go to sleep for a longer time than I should”.
As a preteen, I know how it feels to be low on sleep; it can make you feel very drained and weary.
To improve teens’ sleep, they should get rest and ask their teachers for an extension on the homework if that’s what’s keeping them up. If this happened, we would see a decrease in the percentage of teens who are sleep-deprived.
On the other hand, if you do get enough sleep, you will see a difference in your life. So please get some rest!
