I have been thinking lately, and did some research. So how much sleep do high schoolers get? On average, >10% of high school students are getting the recommended amount of sleep (multiple sites from Google engine). This means about 90% of students are chronically sleep deprived. Let that number sink in. 90 PERCENT! Something needs to change here, as our ability to learn and retain information to succeed is being hindered by the starting time of our schools.
The later school starts the later after school activities will start. Do you really want to be at practice until 8 or 9 pm.
Schools that have implemented later start times have show few problems with sports. In fact, the athletes are in much better condition because they have proper rest and sleep.
I get less than 7 hours of sleep a night, my school pushed back start times to 7:45, but everyone is still sleep deprived.
I start school at 9:00 everyday. Nearly 10 on Wednesdays. It’s still a struggle to get out of bed. The earliest I go to sleep is 11 the latest 2.
I usually get out of bed at around 7:30. I don’t feel rested in the mornings.
But junior year I was going to sleep at 8:30 most nights (crazy huh?) And getting the best sleep.
I have school from 8:30 to 5:00. I rarely get enough sleep. By my sophomore year, I made sure to sleep enough and felt great, but didn’t have a life. I once read that teens have three things: social life, academics, and sleep. Sleep is usually the first to be sacrificed. Incidentally, my sophomore grades are my best.
@greenteen17 If teens have three things (social life, academics and sleep) and in your sophomore year you were able to get enough sleep which we can assume resulted in sophomore year having your best grades, could you not continue with the sleep pattern you had in place then?
@paveyourpath I’ve tried to…but there’s a lot of things I like doing and I had to give them up to sleep. I try to be disciplined, but I can’t just have a life of sleep-school-eat-study-repeat
@greenteen17 I completely agree with you. Teens should have more of a life than just school and studying. Hopefully you can manage a way to balance your schedule so you can still have a social life and get enough sleep.
This is a running theme in our household. My husband and I are adamant about sleep. Unfortunately our teenagers think it is a badge of honor to be able to boast about how few hours of sleep they got the night before??? Drives me crazy. We wish we could do less driving / laundry / early morning duty to get everybody to work and school (out of the house by 7:30 am)! High school SHOULD start later, but there is no sign that that will change anytime soon.
Keep training. Soon you wont need any sleep.