Photo Credit: Mercedes Harris

The average young adult needs at least 8-9 hours of sleep. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey says “ Behavior Survey in 2011 showed that 69% of U.S. high school students get fewer than 8 hours of sleep on school nights, and 40% get 6 or fewer hours. Results from the 2013 survey were virtually identical.” Students are getting pressured to do well in school, how do we make this a reality if we don’t get enough sleep?

It is scientifically proven that students will not be able to participate effectively in the normal routine of a typical student due to lack of sleep. Yes students do go to bed late, they are on their phones a lot which is another bad habit, and even some students don’t  complete the tasks they have during the day if they have enough or close to enough sleep. But this is really unhealthy for the student to be overwhelmed about sleep and other life difficulties they may have.

“The American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and American Medical Association all recommend that middle and high schools start class no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to allow students to get healthy sleep”. What i’m struggling to figure out is the timing of what time high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools start. For high schools, their first class. starts at 7:30am, middle school starts at 7:45, and elementary starts at 9:05. What is the purpose of having school start so early? We have to go to school 5 days a week, so there is absolutely no way that school need to start and extra 2 and a half hours earlier.

I remember I waited for my bus in elementary school and left my house at 8:30 and thinking it was early. Now I wake up at 5:00 in the morning and leave my house to catch the bus at 6:48. Both my parents work early in the morning till 6 at night, because I need so much sleep I have to go to bed at 8:00 at night and I never get to spend time with my family and I have loads of homework with test and quizzes every week.

But how do you know that you aren’t getting enough sleep or how to know you are sleep deprived? Sleep is very important, if you don’t get enough sleep you may cause some harmful side effects to yourself that aren’t pleasant and is hard to go back to normal sleep. Your body can slowly start to shut down and you become tired all the time. If you aren’t getting enough sleep it not going to be long now that you will experience will find yourself hungry all the time and will start to gain weight. Not enough sleep can cause emotions are set into overdrive and you will be tired sad and angry time 10 to what you think you are. You become forgetful or unfocused, you start to zone out a lot and which can cause serious accidents if you are driving for if you are not paying attention to others or your surroundings. Lack of sleep can also cause clumsiness and you have “slower and depressed  motor skills” which means you don’t want to ever socialize.

in conclusion I have to ask,why can’t school start at a later time for the health of the student?