Eight hours of sleep is crucial to a student’s health. It makes them feel energized and feel less tired in the morning, which leads them to be in a better mood than most. However, some students like staying up longer in the night and feel more awake than when they get less hours.
The Center for Disease Control states that “children and adolescents who do not get enough sleep have a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, injuries, poor mental health, and problems with attention and behavior.” How much sleep someone needs depends on their age. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has recommended that “children aged 6–12 years should regularly sleep 9–12 hours per 24 hours and teenagers aged 13–18 years should sleep 8–10 hours per 24 hours.”
This is crucial because there are high schoolers that are getting around three hours of sleep every night and think it’s acceptable or even better because they feel more awake. They say they can go through the day without any problems.
Pasco High senior Gustavo Estevez responded that he goes to sleep at 11 pm and wakes up at 5 am and reports when he gets up he feels good and energized.
Six hours is still good however, but there are still other people that choose to go to sleep later in the night which can effect their mood in the morning.
A report found in the National Library of Medicine states that when participants received a restricted amount of sleep (as opposed to a healthy amount) they rated themselves as significantly more anxious, hostile, confused, and fatigued. Parents and teens also reported greater irritability and poor emotion control.
This can be serious to the students that decide that one or a few more hours on their phone or watching tv with the belief that nothing bad could happen if they stay up just a bit longer.
“I go to sleep at like 2:30am and I usually wake up around 8 to noon and when I wake up I feel horrible and sick,” said senior Damian Garcia.
As we can see, this is serious issue for most high schoolers as they are staying up way too late, and there’s nothing they can do about it besides fixing their own sleep schedule.
