After
a relaxing first week of the second semester, it seems that everyone is ready
to kick it into high gear. To most students, this means working hard in school,
doing a substantial amount of homework after school, as well as staying fully
committed to extracurricular activities. Somewhere in between all of that,
students will find time to get some sleep in. But with all the hard work they
are doing, are they really getting enough? This video should give some insight
as to whether or not high school students get enough sleep at night:
There
were a couple things that I saw as a mirror image of myself. The girl with the
coffee, for example, drinks it to wake herself up every day from being up late
the night before because she was working. I drink some form of a caffeinated
drink, which is generally tea, in order to get myself going in the morning when
I am at school. The fact that many students go to bed at or after 11:00 also
resonated with me because I often find that with my hectic schedule and heavy workload,
I am struggling to make it to bed before 11:00. Although I am supposed to be
getting more sleep than my parents, that is never the case, as I am going to
bed later than them, yet waking up at the same time.
I
then started to wonder why teenagers in our society have placed such little
value on sleep. It seems that there have been extremely high expectations set
on getting high grades, excelling in extracurricular activities, and getting
into prestigious schools, yet none on leading a healthy, balanced lifestyle.
Health and sanity have been thrown out the window at some point in this race
for excellence that we have in our society.
But
why? Why has our society stopped valuing the simple things such as sleep? At a
certain point, doesn’t it seem more worthwhile to get more sleep and feel
rested, or are we all just wired to work nonstop? When does this deprivation of
sleep for the sake of success become too much?
Interestingly, some of this sleep deprivation has to do with the hormonal changes that accompany adolescence. Teenagers do not get tired until much later at night than adults and can stay asleep later into the morning, yet we are expected to wake up and be at school at 8:00 or 7:10 if you're me and crazy enough to do early birds. Although our insane schedules have something to do with it, I find that usually my lack of sleep has more to do with the fact that I just wasn't tired and wanted to watch tv or read a book than a massive amount of homework.
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