It’s another Monday and your alarm rings at 6:00 am. You just woke up from going to sleep at midnight because you were so overfilled with homework and studying and couldn’t go to sleep until then. If only you had that extra hour of sleep.

High school students have so much pressure on them from school, jobs, clubs, sports, and homework. On average, teenagers go to sleep around 11:00pm. This leaves students with only 7 or less hours of sleep. It is even harder for students to focus in class and maybe leave them with more work when they exit the class to learn because they were dozing off during class. 

Sleep deprivation is a serious problem and causes so much more than lack of sleep. Many argue that high school classes should be pushed back by at least an hour to help students out. At Norwin High, students start class at 7:20 am, which means most have to wake up at 6:00 am or so.

”There are too many health problems to list that come from lack of sleep,” said Norwin’s nurse Mrs. Begg. “One for example is that without proper sleep your immune system is compromised and you are more susceptible to whatever illnesses are going around.”

In addition to the health problems, lack of sleep can cause dozing off in class and not paying attention can cause excess work that you would have to do after class because you were unable to focus.

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On a recent Norwin High School journalism poll students voted if they have ever felt like they were going to all asleep in class.

According to a recent Journalism poll of over 50 students, 94 percent of students have dozed off and felt like they were going to fall asleep once or more times in the week.

With school starting at about 7:20 am and rarely getting any breaks except holidays,  so hard to go to school for 6 hours plus having jobs, homework, and sports.

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On a recent Norwin High School journalism poll students voted when they think school should start in the morning.

In a recent Norwin journalism poll 94 percent of students wished high school started after or at 8:00 am.

According to an article from Healthline, ”Research increasingly suggests that starting school later in the day — adjusting start times by as much as an hour — can have significant positive effects on teens, from their brains to their bodies.”

“This [starting high school later] would allow students and faculty to start their school day well rested,”  said Norwin sophomore student Anna Morrow. “This time still allows an early start, but not so early that everyone falls victim to sleep deprivation.”

Students tend to not do school work sometimes to get the extra sleep so they can stay awake in class, but that causes them to be behind on work the next day.

“I prioritize sleep over grades so my grades tend to slip when I go to sleep earlier which then causes me to stay up later which then affects my health,” said Norwin sophomore student Gabi Barron.

Students prioritize their grades more than their health and this is turning into a huge problem for students.

“My grades affect my sleep because of how much effort I put into them, no matter how late I have to stay up to do work,” said Norwin High School sophomore student Miya Valecko. “I think that it is terrible that teenagers feel that a number percentage is more important than their health and the need to sleep.”

Not only does grades affect your sleep, but it also affects how well you can pay attention the next day. Students need the proper amount of sleep so when you are in class you can pay attention and not just doze off and create more work for later.

“I absolutely feel the students would perform better with more sleep,”said Begg. “The brain doesn’t function well without proper amounts of sleep and it’s hard to pay attention when you’re tired.”

This is turning into a problem for many students that makes the nurses aware of this problem too. Health officials advise that students need at least 7 hours of sleep to have a successful day at school and activities after school.

“The advice I would give is that sleep is so important to how the students perform in every aspect of their day. If they are sleep deprived they are more likely to get sick and miss events and they would not be able to perform at their optimum level in sports,” said Begg. “They would be more susceptible to injuries as well. I think the key is to have a regular sleep schedule and try to stick with it throughout the week and to strive to get 7 hours of sleep a night.”

Although school is very important for your future, your grades and how well you sleep impact your future more.

Sleep impacts everything and it’s not just your mood in the morning. Your mood in the day, your grades, how well you perform in sports, how well you can focus in class, and your health. Without getting the proper 8 hours of sleep it can cause so many problems that can easily be avoided by just pushing back school by one hour.  If we can get Norwin High School or maybe even more high schools to push school back an hour we wouldn’t have so many problems with moody teenagers and schools would have happier students.  Let’s change students from being sleep starved to eager awake academic learners.