Let’s be honest—most people at Prep are sleep deprived. According to the CDC, 70% of teens (13-18) have under the recommended 8 hours of sleep. Personally, getting at least 8 hours of sleep seems impossible, but the benefits of having a balanced sleep schedule, especially during finals, are super important.
Staying up late and waking up early for school can cause chronic fatigue, and lack of focus in class. Getting the recommended 8 hours, on top of sports and homework can be hard task but limiting procrastination and phone use when working on homework can help.
Junior Emma Le said, “I sleep for around 5 to 6 hours every school night because I wake up at 5am for school, but go to sleep at 10-12pm”, reasoning that “I do sports, have chores when I get home, and must finish homework. This is a pretty tight schedule, and considering most students are busy, it makes sense why lots of kids don’t get enough sleep.”
Other students reflected this message, saying their heavy workload of sports, classwork, volunteering, and extracurriculars can be difficult.
Many students use the weekend to “catch up” on lost sleep during the weekday, but this is counterintuitive, because doing this will make it even harder to wake up on Monday morning. To change this, start waking up a bit earlier on weekends, and plan fun things to do. For example, planning a morning walk or going to the gym can allow your body to have a regular sleep schedule which will allow you to fall asleep on time, and wake up early regularly.
A big factor in lack of sleep for many students is phones. Have a rule of thumb to not have your phone on your bedside or in your room after a certain time to avoid going on your phone before bed. Having screentime before bed is clinically shown to decrease melatonin in the brain. This happens because the light from your device stimulates your brain, causing the body to be more awake, and making it harder to fall asleep.
Pulling an all-nighter before a big test is actually terrible for memory retention and can cause worse test scores. A Stanford Medicine report in 2015[1], students that had more sleep often had better grades because of better study habits and alertness during exams.
Something everyone can do to improve their sleep habits is to make a guide, scheduling times to sleep every night. If someone goes to bed at the same time every night, it can cause a pattern in the body, so you can fall asleep immediately at that same time, providing a stable sleep schedule and emphasis on getting work done before that time, avoiding procrastination.
