"I will hit the snooze button until it explodes" - Mia Haskins
Do you really know what it’s like being asleep? If yes is your answer, then you’re not alone. We all know when we're asleep but what does it really feel like? When you wake, your body feels refreshed, but what’s really happening?
When you’re sleeping you are feeding your brain just like you would feed your body. Studies show that the recommned hours of sleep for teengagers is 9 ¼ hours, which is 64.75 hours of sleep a week. You and I both know that no high schooler in the entire universe gets that much sleep. I’m a sophomore in high school and during the week I get an estimated amount of 35-40 hours of sleep. If you went up to a college student and asked them how much sleep they get, they would respond with “What is sleep?”. My cousin is a sophomore at UCLA and plays football full time while juggling school and gets 7-8 hours of sleep nightly.
When you’re sleeping you are feeding your brain just like you would feed your body. Studies show that the recommned hours of sleep for teengagers is 9 ¼ hours, which is 64.75 hours of sleep a week. You and I both know that no high schooler in the entire universe gets that much sleep. I’m a sophomore in high school and during the week I get an estimated amount of 35-40 hours of sleep. If you went up to a college student and asked them how much sleep they get, they would respond with “What is sleep?”. My cousin is a sophomore at UCLA and plays football full time while juggling school and gets 7-8 hours of sleep nightly.
Sleep is basically non existent when you’re in highschool, college, and even a working adult. When I walk into class in the morning I like to have a good amount of energy. Instead I walk in sluggish and ready to go back into my dark hole of sleep. Most adults feel the exact same way about having to go to work, but hey at least they're getting paid. My mom's favorite thing to say when I mention that I'm tired is, “Because you're always on that damn phone” oh I love you mom. In some ways phones do influence the amount of sleep a person gets per night. All you have to do is set your alarm and put your phone down and go to sleep.
OSA students get out at 4:15 pm and most take public transportation, making it home around 5-6 pm. I spend 1-3 hours on homework almost every school night, after I finish my homework I still have to take a shower, eat, and do house chores. I asked each student in my class how many hours of sleep they get 5 days a week and it was between 25 being the least and 45 the most. Studies show that only 15% of students get 8 ½ hours of sleep. Which is one hour and 15 minutes less than the recommended amount.
Then I went to ask people in Literary Arts and Production Design how much sleep they each week. People in literary get between 20-45 hours, while students in PD get 25-30. Literary gets 15 more hours in total of sleep compared to PD. I expected the amount of sleep to be different between the two emphasis. When adults are in relationships they say "don’t bring your work home," I sometimes feel the same way with emphasis work.
Coming back from Thanksgiving break, my sleep pattern is completely thrown off. I would go to bed around 12 and wake up at 10 or stay up till the sun came up then go to bed. Now that school is back, I don’t go to bed till 11:15 and wake up around 7:00 even though my alarm goes off at 6:30, I will hit the snooze button until it explodes. Everyday since I came back from break I've been really sluggish which has to do with not having a regular sleep schedule. I spoke with one of my classmates and asked how her weeks been going and she said that she felt very disconnected from class because of the amount of sleep she was getting. I think that could go for everyone else.
Everyone in the world should know that you’re not going to get the desired amount of sleep everyday. Your body knows how to work itself, it knows when it wants to be woken up and put to rest. Teens will never get the recommended hours of sleep unless schools push back starting times, which will allow students to get more sleep. If that was put into effect test scores and class numbers would be a whole lot better. The overall goal is for teens to get the recommended hours of sleep and maybe even more.
