By Roxy Augeri ’20

It’s fateful Tuesday morning, and you take a look around at your first period classroom. Across the room, a conversation like this is occurring;

“Oh my gosh. Guess what happened last night. I got to bed at 9:30. Isn’t that amazing?”

“Are you joking? I got five hours of sleep. I wish I could do that.”

This conversation is not uncommon for students at Staples. It is one that I think should stop. There shouldn’t be a need for it. Kids should be getting at least eight or nine hours of sleep each night.

High school kids are still growing and developing. We are just trying to set ourselves up to go into the real world and be successful. Because of the community we live in, that means an extremely competitive world.

Most kids at Staples are involved in multiple sports and clubs, as well as a slew of challenging classes. Along with that comes hours of work and responsibility. There is an expectation to be a part of multiple clubs and maintain an involvement in the community.

Sleep is vital to a human’s survival and overall ability to function. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that over one-third of the adult population in the U.S. sleeps less than the recommended minimum of 7 hours each night,” The Huffington Post says.

If everyone is expecting us to perform well and remain healthy, they need to let us sleep. Without it, the brain cannot function to its full potential. You can’t expect kids to perform to the best of their abilities.

One thing we could do in order to get kids to sleep is to lower time commitments. As they are now, it is so easy to get sucked into homework for hours on end. By decreasing homework, or modifying it, there is a good chance that students will get to bed earlier.

Another thing students can do to improve their amount of sleep as well as quality of sleep is to power down. I know I’m not alone in saying there are times in which I get caught down the Youtube hole, and find myself two hours later at 1:00 a.m. wondering what happened.

If we can make sure to get students to bed, performance and happiness will increase. Students will be more productive and engaged in class.