As the end of the school year approaches, it’s difficult not to notice the bags and dark circles under the eyes of sluggish teenagers. The students of CCHS are lacking something that everyone craves and not always gets: sleep. Newsflash: the homework isn’t helping.
In the midst of homework, maintaining grades and upholding a social status, students don’t seem to get much shut-eye nowadays. One can tell by simply looking into a classroom and counting all of the heads that are down, as students lie sleeping because they couldn’t the night before.
“I don’t get a lot of sleep on school nights,” senior Julie Casey said. “I usually go to bed around 2 in the morning because I have so many things to do before school. It usually catches up to me when I’m half asleep in my classes.”
Many students believe that lack of sleep isn’t something one can wish away, but something they have been burdened with. To assure teachers that their students fully understand the lesson that was taught to them, homework is assigned and expected to be completed by the following class. But the recipients of the assignments feel drowned by the weight of its grade in Pinnacle because homework goes before sleep, even if it means no sleep at all.
“I do not feel as though I get enough sleep on school nights because I am overfilled with homework and projects,” sophomore Victoria Martin said. “I work on them until late at night and even early mornings. There is the occasional all-nighter that i pull, I do it at least twice a month.”
But the recipients of the assignments feel drowned by the weight of its grade in Pinnacle because homework goes before sleep, even if it means no sleep at all.
Also, the studying that is required to ace tests doubles the homework for students. Not only are students sacrificing sleep for their grade in the class in general, but they are losing sleep to pass a test. In reality, higher grades come from more sleep, however students value studying than they would truly prepping for a test.
School work isn’t the only contributor to the situation, as maintaining a social life, including the social media apps they use, is also a leading factor in the loss of sleep that students get. In order to stay in contact and connected with fellow classmates, students often use apps such as Snapchat and/or Twitter. Using these apps can lessen the amount of time that students have to do their work and even cause them to be unable to sleep due to increased brain activity and blue light that the phone gives off.
Students all around have problems with disconnecting their devices to sleep, including Paulina Manta.
“In the middle of all the schoolwork, I find time to distract myself with social media,” Manta said. “I socialize with my friends electronically all the time, it’s just difficult to find a good time to do so when I should be doing the billion things I have to finish for school.”
However, students should be able to socialize and finish their work with 9 hours of sleep on a week night, according to everyone who is not the sleep-deprived student. Also, it is widely encouraged by many of the adults who assign the same students with work, to maintain a good social life and be overall happy.
It is widely encouraged by many of the adults who assign the same students with work, to maintain a good social life and be overall happy.
But even if students found other ways to stay connected besides their devices, online classwork is a requirement for many classes, so working on the computer to finish online assignments are still giving them the blue light that stops them from sleeping.
CCHS requires for the student to pass at least one online class before they can graduate, so staying off their devices and computers is not an option.
Even with homework and social media affecting the amount of sleep students get, time to complete everything before school is shortened by many hours of sports practices, events and any other extracurriculars that students are encouraged to immerse themselves in. Varsity volleyball player and CCHS student Megan Hernandez knows the difficulty of upholding academics and a sport, all while getting sleep.
CCHS requires for the student to pass at least one online class before they can graduate, so staying off their devices and computers is not an option.
“Coming home after practice and realizing all the school work I have to do is a normal part of my day,” Hernandez said. “I spend my day after school doing normal things like eating and hanging out with my family or friends, I don’t have time, but being in high school for four years I have learned and [become] accustomed to my busy schedule and lack of sleep.”
Until then, CCHS students are lacking the sleep they should be getting and could have without the excessive amounts homework and studying they are given from school. But as the year is approaching its end, thankfully, week nights with sufficient sleep are soon to come. Hopefully in future years to come, students not only in CCHS but everywhere will no longer lose sleep over school.
Photo courtesy of Dreampad
