When I was younger I was allowed to stay up thirty minutes later than the previous year. On the weekends I would go to bed no later than eleven thirty and wake up before nine thirty. I was a happy kid and always was full of energy, and fun.
Wow has it changed. There is no more bed time, and no more Saturday’s where I wake up extra early to watch TV or to play videogames, and there isn’t always that energetic, fun kid there used to be. As I have transitioned into high school the amount of sleep I get each night has gone down severely and has really changed my life. It has extremely altered who I am at school as a student and as a friend. There are some classes where I am just too exhausted to focus and participate in which has hurt my performance at school a little bit. I never used to be tired, I always the most wild, energized kid in the school, but the wrath of sleep hit me and now sometimes I am that wild kid, but other times I am too tired to hang with my friends. I miss that feeling of excitement that I used to get when I woke up, ready for the day to start. I had all of the energy in the world trapped inside of me waiting to be release, but now there isn’t enough energy to last the day, and this is all because of sleeping issues.
A good night’s sleep lets me act like myself, the fun, outgoing, energetic kid I am for an entire day, not just for parts of the day.
Lacking sleep is a problem not just for me but is true for many other high school students as well. Sleep deprivation causes kids to not be attentive in class, be less social with their friends and be less focused throughout the day. Parents have always wondered why once their kids become teenagers, why they seem to become less patient and more demanding, well there’s your answer. As kids move into high school the amount of sleep they get per night goes down, which causes them to be tired, less patient and more demanding the next day. When someone is tired there social skills are not to their best ability and that is something teens go through every day. The loss of sleep causes more fights because everyone is very impatient with each other, and that uses up a lot of energy. Teens spend a lot of energy during their days doing work at school and participating in sports and have to come home and do more work on top of that. After school sports forces kids to get home a couple of hours after school ends, and also drains the kids physically. It leaves a very small window of time for students to eat dinner, shower, and relax, but also fit in homework.
I always tell myself that I am going to start going to bed no later than ten thirty, but it never happens. I can’t figure out a way to achieve this goal of mine, and I am not sure it is possible to do most nights. With all of the sports and work teens are involved in school it seems that school needs to start later. It is the most logical solution and it benefits everyone. If school started at ten and ended at four thirty and sports ended at six thirty or seven teens could sleep for enough hours so they aren’t zombies in school. It allows the students to sleep in later and if needed, time to do homework in the mornings. It allows the kids to have time to wake up in the morning before school starts. School would still be ending early enough so kids would still have time to do their homework at night. It allows the kids who play sports to not stress about homework as much, allowing them to go to bed and do the homework in the morning or to stay up later and sleep in later in the morning.
Teens need more sleep especially with all of the work I have in high school. A good sleep lets kids be themselves to the max, and doesn’t take away part of a person’s personality. Sleeping more would help kids in school and for sports, supplying them more energy to endure these events.