It’s half past four in the morning. The alarm goes off and it’s time to start the day. Even before her full day of school, senior Liz Saverino has gym at 6:15 in the morning.
At 2:30 p.m., when most students go home, Liz heads over to Field Hockey practice until 5 o’clock. So it’s dinner time right? But Liz won’t get to eat until she prepares the meal that she and her father eat.
Laundry is next on her long list of responsibilities. After this vigorous schedule, she still has to finish her homework for all the classes that make up her full schedule. With all this to do on any given day, when is there time to sleep? There isn’t, so by this time of the night, Liz’s physics book may end up being her pillow.
Not all students’ schedules may be this hectic, but most students claim to be overtired. It is necessary for high school students to sleep on average eight to nine hours every night, say medical sources. During times of growth, 12 to 14 hours may be necessary.
Many teens are aware that sleep deprivation can cause you to be low on energy or be in a bad mood, or even more apt to get sick.
But did you know, according to the Food and Drug Administration’s Consumer Magazine (July-August 1998), lack of sleep can also stunt growth and make you more likely to make mistakes in school? It even makes you more prone to accidents. According to the FDA, 200,000 car crashes occur each year due to falling asleep at the wheel, and thousands of Americans die annually due to these types of accidents.
With the full schedules that can occupy the days of most high school students it is hard to believe that time can be spared for sleep. The FDA recommends that students keep bed and wake times within an hour of each other on a day to day basis, including weekends.
You can’t expect to make up for your sleep on weekends either. If you can’t get to bed on time, squeezing a nap in during the day isn’t a substitute but will help. The FDA determined that if you’re getting enough sleep, you shouldn’t need an alarm clock to wake up. So that obnoxious buzz in the morning that is not something that teens need to deal with.
Experts from the Nemours Foundation, a non-profit health care service, say that it is just as necessary to get sleep as it is the breath or even eat. As a matter of fact, they say, humans can survive longer without food than without sleep.