Sleep By: Lauren Kauders One teenscenario: School from 7:45 until 2:20 Football Practice from 2:45 until 6:30pm Home by about 7:00 Showered by 7:15 Family Dinner at 7:30 Exhausted and tired; Start homework by 8:30 Do homework until ??:?? Sleep. It's something that most SBHS students haven't seen in quite a while, or so it seems. Regardless of what time you go to bed, it's probably too late; the truthis, only a very small number of high school students actually receive asubstantial amount of sleep per night. Studies have shown that high school teenagers should get at least 9 hours of sleep per night. The more active teen,who is involved in an after school sport or job should try to sleep a minimum of 10 hours. Today's teens suffer from a lack of sleep due to an overabundance of homework, afterschool jobs, extra curricular activities and after school sports. It seems thatas the school year proceeds and the homework piles up, the less sleep a student gets. Although it may not seem to be harmful, not receiving enough sleep isindeed dangerous to your body and health. Having a routine of going to bed atlate hours is harmful to your health because gradually your body develops a toleranceto stay awake later and later into the night. Shortly, your biological clock can only allow you to go to bed at a late hour. By repeating nightly rituals ofgoing to bed late, in the morning, your body becomes accustomed to functioning off of minimal hours of sleep, which ultimately makes your school day drag on and makes you want to doze off. Lack of proper amounts of sleep endangers the immune system and makes sleep-deprivedkids more susceptible to illnesses. In addition to weakening the immune system, sleep deprivation can impair memoryand slow down thinking, thus making it difficult for sleep-deprived students tolearn.  Senior Vanessa Romero says, "It's been quite a while since I've gotten a good nights sleep. Almost every night I eventually end up going to bed when the clock only has 3 digits onit. Vanessa also commented on being exhausted throughout the whole school day, going straight to work, and cominghome to hours of homework." It might seem that obtaining the right amount of sleep is virtually impossible; however, there are ways to improve how much sleep you get. Making a daily schedule to budget your time is an effective way to get yourself to bed at a reasonable time. Also avoiding strenuous exercise and or watching television beforebed can help you fall asleep quicker. In the end, it seems that teenagers thatare over committed, struggle to find time in their schedule to stop and breathefor a second. As sleep becomes a low priority, and stress gradually surfaces,one wonders what can be done to eliminate stress and stop being exhausted. Realistically, eliminating sports, jobs or after school activities from ones schedule, can increase free time and thus allow time to sleep; but teens will argue, that's not how they want to experience high school. Because of this, sleepless nights will last, and that's just a part of life.