Did you know that professionals recommend at least 9 hours of sleep for teens? How many times in the past month do you think you’ve gotten 8+ hours of sleep? If your answer is less than 5 times a week, then this article might be for you. Sleep deprivation is a problem that plagues about 77.3% of teens in America, according to the CDC. How do we solve this problem? What can students as well as schools do to fix this?
First, in order to be able to effectively fix the problem, the problem itself should be properly identified. What happens when we sleep and why is it so important? According to Mark Wu, a John Hopkins sleep expert and neurologist, your body goes through multiple cycles of non-REM and REM sleep in order to efficiently heal and recharge the body and mind. Wu says that a healthy amount of sleep is good for the plasticity of the brain, which is a fancy way of saying how your brain retains and remembers information. And for those of you who haven’t figured it out already, the ability to remember and retain information is crucial when it comes to school.
Now that we know a bit about why we need sleep and how it plays into our education, let's see what can be done to fix it. While students do play a big part in their own sleep habits, the start times of school have a big impact as well. Conroe High, as you know, starts at 7:15 am, and most of its students wake up anywhere between 4 to 7 am. So, if you do the math, students would have to go to bed at around 8-10pm to achieve their minimum amount of sleep and around 6-8pm to have their recommended amount of sleep. While moving start times to a bit later in the morning would definitely have a positive impact on sleep habits and education, being more in tune with circadian rhythms and internal sleep drives, it is unfortunately difficult for large school districts to organize that. However, things can be done to help get better sleep without necessarily sacrificing more hours of your evening by going to bed early.
Some things that you could do to increase quality of sleep would be to create a relaxing bedtime routine, limit screen time for up to 1 hour before bed, and maintain a regular sleep schedule. While you personally might not crave the structure of proper routines and schedules, your body thrives off of them, making it very important to give yourself a regular routine that your body can count on. Screens, believe it or not, also play a huge role in your ability to have quality sleep. The blue light coming from your phone screen tricks your brain into thinking that it is still daytime, which slows down melatonin production. In the end, if you decide to try and help your body and brain out a bit, I’m sure you will be rewarded with a significant improvement in your academic performance.
By Brooklin Garrison