The older you get, the more you realize how important sleep is. Sleep plays an important role in our physical and mental healths. According to KQED, an average teenager is supposed to have eight to nine hours of sleep. In most cases, students aren’t even close to getting enough sleep. In my situation, on average, every night I end up getting five hours of sleep. Not only does that affect my health, but it affects my performance at school.
For students to get enough sleep, our school day should start at a later time. Due to the amount of homework some students have, they don’t end up going to sleep until after 11 and still have to wake up really early for school. Our daily schedule starts at 7:45 in the morning and ends at 3:15 in the afternoon. BCSC schools have one of the longest schools days.
Our school day should start at a later time; preferably after 8:30 in the morning. It will help students get a higher amount of sleep and perform better at school. According to KQED, “most teenagers need sufficient sleep to cope with busy lives filled with school, sports, and extracurricular activities.” If school started at a later time, students would be able to get more rest and perform better academically. Whenever I don’t get enough sleep, I end up either falling asleep in class or zoning off during the lesson. I end up completely lost in our lesson and it hurts my grades. If I had the opportunity to sleep in an extra hour, it would help benefit me significantly.
If there are schools who start at a later time, then BCSC schools should too. For example, Bloomington North and South start their school day at 8:00 a.m. and end it at 2:55 p.m. That means the students there have the chance to sleep in 15 minutes more compared to us. It may not seem like a lot, but for someone who sleeps five hours a night, 15 minutes would be convenient. They also end their school day 20 minutes earlier, allowing them to have more free time in the afternoon. Another school, such as Marion High School start their school day at 8:45 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and 9:00 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays. Students from Marion High School have an extra hour of sleep.
It is understandable that there are certain hours of school needed in the year, but a student’s mental and performance is more important. Starting school later in the morning can allow students to perform better. I know that if I had the opportunity to sleep at least an extra 15-30 minutes, I would do better in school.
