The Student News Site of Black River Falls High School

BRFHS Paw Print

The Student News Site of Black River Falls High School

BRFHS Paw Print

The Student News Site of Black River Falls High School

BRFHS Paw Print

Wanted: More Sleep

Wanted%3A+More+Sleep

School, work, chores, homework, sleep, repeat.

Everyone has things going on within their lives. There’s school, sometimes a job, chores, large amounts of homework, and then after all of that, sleep. Of course, there will be the kids who stay up all night on their phones or playing video games too, but there’s just so many other things out there that tires high school students out.

“I stay up kind of late playing video games and watching TV and stuff, but it sucks too because I have to get up really early to get ready for the bus, too,” said freshman Ayden Ehlen.

According to UCLA Health, teens need about nine hours of sleep to feel properly rested for the next day. However, due to many different things that could be possibly be going on in their lives, teens hardly ever really ever get enough sleep. Besides having a hectic schedule, there’s also other things that could prevent sleep such as different types of sleeping conditions, emotional problems, and even things like puberty.

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“I have sleep deprivation, so I keep waking up in the middle of the night, and it’s super hard to fall back asleep. So, by the time I actually get some sleep, it’s time to get up,” said freshman Issac Knight.

Lack of sleep will not only make you less likely to learn as much as you would when you’re awake, but it will also affect your ability to concentrate or remember important things that you need to do, or important events.

“I find myself super tired all the time, and sometimes I’ll forget that I have a club meeting or even homework for a class,” said sophomore Mackenzie Bedell.

The National Sleep Foundation(NSF) had conducted a test to show how much lack of sleep affects a student’s grades. Within this test, there were 1,602 students who had participated. They were given a test out of 30 points. Out of all of the participants, 46% of them had gotten a score of 10-14, 37% had gotten a score of 15-19, and only 17% had a score of 20-30.

“I try to study as much as I can the night before a test, then I get super paranoid and can’t fall asleep after that,” said sophomore Mckenna Reetz.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults tend to think that teenagers don’t have much to worry about within their lives, but 56% of students say that they feel super stressed or anxious about all sorts of different things going on in their lives, while 58% say that they tend to worry about too many things that they shouldn’t need to worry about.

“I get super anxious going to school every single day because I never know what’s going to happen. It’s not really healthy, but I just can’t help it,” said sophomore Taylor Skar.

Schools all over insist that they truly care about their students’ wellbeing, but then they give out speeches on how students need to try harder if they are late to class, having lower grades, have bad attitudes, and many other things. The NSF has caused many schools all over the United States to rethink their starting time for school, to see if there was any change in the overall behavior of their students.

“After the Minneapolis Public School District changed the starting times of seven high schools from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m., the study investigated the impact of later start times on student performance, and the results are encouraging,” said NSF Representative Zoe Lofgren.

The same study done on the Minneapolis Public School District showed that there was an increase in the entire school’s GPA and attendance. And on the other hand, the number of depressed students went down, and the number of students that weren’t getting enough nutrition in their system went down as well.

“I don’t think that it’s really fair that they get to start later and we don’t, but I guess that the schedule is the way it is for a reason,” said Skar.

High school students all over have a lot of things going on in their lives. The homework that the school gives them, the stress that comes with that homework, a possible job that has long hours, perhaps some chores to do at home, and then their impossibly difficult social lives. All of these things to deal with within 24 hours, only to have it all reoccur again the very next day.

“It’s really hard dealing with everything that can happen in one day, there’s just not enough hours in a day to get everything that I might have to do done,” said sophomore Erin Pfaff.

There is hardly any balance within any students life, there so much to do and not enough hours in the day. So all of that stress, work, and lack of sleep only goes to have a negative effect on their school lives, which then just adds more negativity to their lives. Then teachers just add to it by saying that students need to push themselves harder, when realistically their pushing themselves as hard as they can.

“I don’t think that students realize how much work that teachers have to do just to grade all of the work for all of their classes. So when students don’t turn in their work, it makes it harder for teachers to get their work done, too,” said English teacher Suzanne Anderson.

There are many studies, many facts and so many other options of proof that just go to show that students need more sleep. So should the students school push back their starting time for school like so many others have done? Should they allow a period of rest, like the students are back in kindergarten again? Or should they do nothing and make the students more stressed?

“I NEED MORE SLEEP!” said Reetz.

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The Student News Site of Black River Falls High School
Wanted: More Sleep