Sleep. An ancient form of peace, it is meant to give your body rest and energize you for another brand new day. But it seems that there are few that practice the art of sleep, and live to tell the tale
By Siddharth Muchhal
Sleep. An ancient form of peace, it is meant to give your body rest and energize you for another brand new day. But it seems that there are few that practice the art of sleep, and live to tell the tale.
High school students, especially upperclassmen, often have activities that require time and attention, and sadly, teens are not receiving the amount of sleep that their bodies need.
According to the National Sleep Foundation (yes, that is an actual organization), teenagers should get between 8.5 and 9.25 hours of sleep on an average day. Out of the 79 students surveyed, only 7.6 percent of them received that much amount of sleep. And of the 79 people surveyed, 72.1 percent received seven hours of sleep or less on an average day. These statistics are strong evidence of a major underlying problem with the sleep patterns of high school students.
Of the people surveyed, 62.3 percent believed that it was the workload of curricular and extracurricular that kept students up. From SAT prep, to college-scouting, to extracurricular clubs and projects, to the copious amounts of homework and test preparation that needs to be done, sleep almost becomes a luxury that cannot be afforded. But 66.2 percent of the students surveyed believe that their sleep habits were affecting their academic performance, and of those, 61.2 percent believes it does so negatively.
So not only are the students losing their sleep for academics, but their sleep loss is also making their academic performance worse. This is the creation of an evil cycle that many do not know how to get out of, and some do not want to get out of it.
Along with slipping academic performance losing sleep is a major cause of many diseases and health problems, some that show signs during adulthood. Problems include weight gain, heart attacks and related diseases, and hurt cognitive function. Most recently, studies done at the Washington University School of Medicine showed that sleep loss can cause Alzheimer’s disease. So by losing sleep, students are being hurt in many ways.
After seeing the facts, it almost seems obvious that there needs to be a change. Some students do not want to change, however. With all of the activities going on in their lives, no one has time for the lost ancient art of sleep. The normal student attitude is, “I would rather lose a couple of hours of sleep then get a ‘B’ on my test.” What students with this attitude do not realize is that a “B” on a test will not kill you, but sleep loss, at a certain point, will. There needs to be a major change in mindset at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, and sleep must be taken seriously again.
To accommodate sleep into our lives, there need to be major changes in the way we look at sleep. It is not just rest time that your body likes to get, it is rest time that your body needs to get. Instead of cutting out sleep to get your test studying done, cut out those 15 minutes where you are submersed into “Angry Birds,” or those 20 minutes just spend scrolling through Facebook. This valuable time wasted on social sites and entertainment can instead be used to finish what you need to finish without hurting your sleep time. Sleep because your body needs it.
West Windsor resident Siddharth Muchhal is a freshman in West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South.