zzzzzzzzzz
Anybody who has had a class with me from 6th grade onwards has most likely seen me sleeping on more than one occasion. If it was a math or science class, it was probably much much more than once occasion. I never really got over the switch between school start times after elementary school. Park Avenue had the perfect system; if I remember correctly school didn’t start until around nine. Back in those days I averaged somewhere in the range of nine or ten hours of sleep per night. This seems like heaven to me now that I have entered what feels like a semi-constant state of mild sleep deprivation, due to ever increasing amounts of work and my annoying habit of pushing it off until the last minute (for further details, see the “BS” post). Middle school forced me to wake up before seven if I wanted to take a shower, which seemed obscenely early and possibly criminal. However, now I would be ecstatic to sleep in until 6:50ish since in order to both catch the bus and eat breakfast I need to wake up at around 6:10.
Six.
Ten.
AM.
This just feels plain ridiculous to me. I can’t understand why we are forced to get up continuously earlier and earlier, when all it does is makes me less able to function during the school day. When up against such impossible odds, it’s no wonder that I occasionally (okay, often) find myself drifting off to catch up on missed sleep during the school day.
Many scientific studies agree with me. There have been various studies conducted which have concluded that teens need about 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night. Scientists have also found that teens have a different biorhythm than adults and kids, which causes them to want to naturally fall asleep and sleep in later. This ideal sleep cycle is impossible to achieve during the school year, what with homework, sports, and random things that always seem to pop up and delay sleep time. I believe that if I were to ask a professional about this subject, he or she would definitely say that it would be much healthier for teens if they could somehow get to bed earlier, or if school could simply start later.
