Intentional insomnia. Advised apnea. Selective sleeplessness.
All of the conditions above aren’t real medical problems, but they may very well be in the coming years. What we have in America is a sleep crisis, folks. Or at least, the teenagers do.
In today’s world of 24/7 business, economies that never end, and around the clock productivity, adults often find themselves pulling late hours just to get the job done. Staying up late, waking up early, that’s all just part of the job. Wouldn’t it be nice if adults could just live like their kids in school?
If you want to create a population that is so tense it can barely breathe, then yes, that would be a nice thing.
These days, in order to be successful in life, you have to make the grade. The fact of the matter is that simple. Not a good class rank? Not a good university acceptance letter. That’s just the way things are. We have to meet the demands of our teachers to get through this system, and whatever they are going to require us to do, we do. They say jump, we ask how high.
Even if that requires us staying up all night to make that goal.
In order to make these goals swirling around us, sacrifices have to be made. As a student, I am presented with two choices everyday: I either give up my grade or give up my sleep. Few and far between are the nights where I am able to cross through the twilight hours without having to make that conscious decision. And I know I’m not the only one out there.
Before I continue, I would like you as a reader to think to yourself, “what would I consider to be late at night?” What time do you look at the clock and think to yourself, “wow, it’s time to call it quits and go to bed. I’ll fiddle with this more in the morning.”
Is it ten at night? Kid stuff, literally.
Is it eleven at night? That’s when I’m wide awake
Is it midnight? My most productive hour.
Is it one in the morning? Here is where I start to get dorwsy.
Is it two in the morning? Unless I am swamped with homework, this is usually when I call it quits.
To the reader out there who beat me, I congratulate you. However, first I feel like I should point out two things before I extend my praise:
1. What time do you have to get up?
Me? I have to wake up every morning at 6 a.m. If I hope to make it to class on time for first period.
2. I might be asleep by 2 a.m., but I have friends who are up at all hours of the night. I even have friends who don’t sleep for days on end.
You read that right, I know people who go for three or four day stretches with no sleep in order to meet all their obligations as a student, as a leader, and as a dependable person.
The sad truth is, people in my generation who are looking to go to the best schools America has to offer are having to make direct sacrifices to their health and well being in order to make their goals become realities. And it’s not only my friends. According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average teenager needs nine to twelve hours of sleep a day in order to be able to function properly and live healthy lives.
However, the National Sleep Foundation also reports that less than 15% of teenagers report they meet the minimal sleep requirement regularly. And that is just the minimal sleep requirement.
Our education system has reached a level of total consumption. People don’t realize the sacrifices we students have to make every night. We are willing to work hard, we are willing to give our education our all, we are willing to make school our priority. But please don’t take advantage of us. I don’t know a single teacher that lives on the same sleep cycle as his or her students.
Everyday, we AP students stumble into our first period barely conscious with an average of three to six hours of sleep under our belts and are expected to give our education our all. And we do.
But is it worth the cost?
Sure it is possible to just take lower classes, take a lighter work load, and get more sleep, but it’s blissful ignorance to expect to get into a top tier school with a light class load. Just talk to a college admissions counselor. Ask them what the main thing colleges are looking for on a transcript, and I guarantee you that nine out of ten times, the answer will be “did they take the most challenging classes they could?”
I know this; I’ve heard the spiel at least once a month at my own high school.
So on behalf of myself and hundreds of other students with bags under their eyes, I would like to publicly ask for a little bit of relief. Just a little more sleep; just a few more minutes.
That might be the end of my article, but it’s not the end of this conversation. I really want to hear from you reader.
How much sleep do you get? Should student’s be getting more or less sleep? Is it really that important of an issue?
Wow, this is a really great article. I completly agree, I am in High School and this is really true.
Check out racetonowhere.com An entire cause devoted to this and related issues!
Great link! It is so true, America is locked in a race to no where, and the crazy thing is even around the world the very same thing is happening. Check out this documentary about high school in South Korea, currently the leading standardized test nation in the world.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1877491487/documentary-on-korean-education
I never sleep. Omygoshteachers get this through your head!
today my english teacher asked me why i was so tired
ITS THE GOSH DARN WORK YOU POOR OUT ON ME
really…
i never sleep
I really think sleep is hurting our students preformance. there comes a point when you just need to set down the book and turn off the lights and go to bed
sleep > school
sleep sleep sleep sleep lul
Great post chap!
Sounds to me like YOU need sleep YOURSELF!
i really think kids can suck it up. why else are there energy drinks? to give us energy
sleep when you are dead, until then give it your all
for example, i sleep like what? 30 minutes a night
4 hours is like a dream for me
and yes my comment is from tfa
Totally true, Jacob! I’m writing this right now having gotten home from working at a day of band practice, conducting an NHS Induction ceremony, and having homework in multiple classes lined up to do.
I like to think that the statement “you reap what you sow” is true. I hope it is, at least. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me going is the idea that “this is all going to pay off sometime, this is all going to pay off sometime…”
At any rate, great article! Here’s to hoping that all of us students will end up getting some much needed rest……someday.
I totally agree with Chris. Great article first off. Secondly, I really think a protestant work ethic is what pays off here. There are lots of people who are just lazy. Hopefully we are going to get the fruits of our labor AND the sleep we need.
Good luck with all of your extracurriculars Chris!
Excellent article Jacob! You keep making me come back article after article, due to the relation I feel with them. Thank you for sharing that I’m not alone with these thoughts. You’re writing style is fresh, to the point, and amusing at the same time. Keep the articles coming, Mr. Dwyer.
if this was facebook i would like that comment lol
Wow! It’s sad to hear you get such little sleep each night. The demands put on students are growing more and more, but what is accomplished by this? We have high school students who are so tired they can’t think straight. It’s important to take the most challenging classes you can, but it’s even MORE important to get plenty of sleep each night. Where’s the balance? Does it really benefit students to work so late each night they can’t make it to first period on time? Come on teachers, it’s time to give students a break!
Wow, Richard, out of all the comments on this blog, I really agree with this one. Especially the comment “We have high school students who are so tired they can’t think straight.”
That is so true. I am in college now,so I am getting a little more rest than I used to (I used to go on like 3 hours of sleep a night) but I remember my senior year I was just so tired all the time I had what we called mental constipation. and i had it really bad
MAYBE IF YOU DIDN’T SPEND YOUR TIME WRITING STUPID ARTICLES/SURFING FACEBOOK PROMOTING YOUR BLOG, YOU WOULD ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO SLEEP AT A DECENT TIME!!! Fail to manage time and this is what happens to your life……….
you’re cute
that’s just the majority of people
you cant work 24/7
all work and no play makes jack a dull boy
and im assuming you are very dull
but your logic is vaild
Dull enough to be voted “most interesting man at a party” 2011
I totally agree with you. Just last night, I went to bed at 5 and had to get up at 6:30. I feel as though society nowadays is just so bent on the theme of improving. Every year, we need to have higher grades, more SAT testers, more teachers, more this, more that. But I seriously think that we have pretty much reached the cap of educational excellency. Sure, not every kid is passing high school or is getting the “perfect American dream” education, but it is there and those that chase it shouldn’t have to sacrifice their health to achieve it. As the saying goes, you can only improve something so much, until the next improvement makes it worse.
I disagree with your comment about the fact that we have “pretty much reach the cap of educational excellency” due to the fact the results of our education don’t correspond with that statement….
he also states later on that any additional changes will create flaws in the system
similar to the perfect and untouched economy presented in Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”
Any additional changes will make the system have more flaws which will create the further need to change more, it’s a broken cycle downhill fueled by politicians and bureaucrats
Then how are other systems working better than ours? I understood what the commenter said; my point was that if there is no so called “room for improvement” then how is there such a notable gap between the education of the US and other countries? They’re obviously doing something less flawed.
They do, it’s called not our system. Our education system isn’t the ONLY system. The one we haven isn’t working, and theirs are. I say we might want to take a look into that.
This is so true, i dont care what others say i need more sleep
You guys should read this, it really is helpful in showing its not just due to a work ethic http://healthmad.com/children/why-do-teens-sleep-and-wake-up-late/
Wow, i never knew there was a legit biological reason
This just shows that teens have a predilection to sleeping late. I don’t really think it’s a valid reason to stay up until 2-3.
Of course, there are those who have many non-academic commitments such as orchestra, band, a part-time job, etc-those that come home late will probably sleep late, but that’s a consequence of their circumstances and sometimes choices. It may sound harsh, but to get a good grade, you gotta work for it. No pain, no gain. If you sign up for rigorous classes, you’re going to have to expect a relatively heavy workload. For the classes that have more worth GPA wise (a.k.a. AP classes and Pre-AP classes), the objective is to teach more in less time. This will inherently lead to more homework and less sleep. Manage your time better and sort out your priorities, and you’ll be able to squeeze as much sleep out of the day as you can-that’s all that we can really do….
what you are saying is the equivalent of 1+1 = 17, as long as you add the other 15 on your own time.
your argument is so flawed it’s not even funny.
For starters, there is a limit as to what you should be teaching. and there is a way to teach it well. half of the things in the ap curriculum is pure busy work with absolutely no merit.
the teachers for these classes cant convey the material well enough in class, so they are basically telling us to teach it to ourselves outside of class.
and in the argument posted above you are indicating it is not possible to be doing ap and another activity outside of the classroom, when BOTH are needed to have any dream of reaching a tier one university.
there are boundaries to what is alright and not alright. if you cant cover the material in class because you go on irrelevant tangents (which have happened in english, history, stats, physics, bio, chem, calc, and every other ap class i have ever taken) then maybe you should restructure the way you allocate the time in your class room
there needs to be a clear distinction between the limit that is for learning outside of class and the limit that is given because the teacher can’t teach
For AP classes, the subject matter is already preordained by collegeboard/ AP tests. It is possible to maintain a schedule of a high number of AP classes and participate in extracurricular activities, but it’s undoubtedly more difficult than just focusing on one or the other. There will be sacrifices made.
I’m not sure what you mean by irrelevant tangents. It sounds more a a teacher problem than a system problem. If your teacher sucks, go talk to another teacher or get help. You can’t help your luck. True, it’s not fair, but nothing in life is.
That wasn’t the whole point of my reply anyway. I was just pointing out that the information provided by the link is no excuse for staying up late-having a lot of work is.
The AP system may say what we need to teach, but they don’t say HOW to teach it. There are nations out there with far better systems then ours. Their students get plenty of sleep, are happy, and score circles around us in standardized test.
You my friend are thinking too small scale. This isn’t about putting a band-aid on something broken and sucking it up. It’s about starting fresh and new
ironically i read it right as im getting ready for bed lol
reading this made me tired haha
hi. hi. hi.
hi.hi.hi.hi.hi
hi.hi.hiiiiiiiiiiiiii
soup
salutations!
and so i reach the limit again :/
nice blog though!
totes agree
dude, use correct english please…
know
…
You disappoint me, Fred
Hi my name is Nikhil Roy. And I support this blog post.
Screw you and your stupid campaign. I’m not voting for you for homecoming king SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE you endorsed this blog post. Be watchful of what you endorse mah man lest you alienate your followers!
I wonder if it is like this all over the US?
dis UN great blug
*blog
Irony strikes again
so much traffic at night
my parents are asleep as i type this
so hipster
You have no idea what hipster is do you….. if you think you know what hipster is, you’re already mainstream…..
typing is so mainstream
im just going to press my face to my screen and whisper to it
like a hipster
im so hipster, my brain waves are conveying these messages to you. you think you can read them on your screen, but theyre being broadcast from my brain to yours, burned behind your retinas for the short time being. im both awake and asleep, straddler of time zones, controller of time.
sucks for you
im so hipster i can’t read
or think
GOOD MORNING ALL WHO ARE STILL AWAKE
#NOSLEEPFORMETONIGHTBIOTESTTOMORROW
great
job
!
Soup
Great post! I love the weekends, my average spikes by a lot and i go fro three hours of sleep to like twelve lol
There may indeed be a problem with the amount of work assigned to our students, but the true problem lies much deeper. We have not given any real intention, direction, or purpose to the learning. As educators, we rarely can articulate a genuine response to the valid question of our students, “Why?” We present a rediculous amount of informationlike it is all critical, but for what purpose? When boiled down, it is important because someone is going to attach a numeric value to your understanding. The holy grail has become grade points. This is anemic motivation and does not ultimately pay off. We must create innovative environments, connecting student learning to opportunites for affecting change in our communities. I study not to acquire a grade, but to become excellent at what I do in order to have the most impact possible in my world. Is this heresy? At least there would be a point to it all.
I really do agree with your point here. The only reason my teachers shove this information down my throat is so i can pass a test that lists out what i need to be able to throw up on paper within a given period of time. and the motivation? gpa and “college” credit. I really hope what you say is not heresy, but instead a vision
so i came across this post because it was the most commented, i can see why. you are a good author kid
im so reposting this. youre lucky, ive got quite a few facebook friends and twitter followers who are going to like this
dude, conrad thanks for the link
the comments on this blog are great. btw, sorry if my speed kind of seems creepy. anyways, great post. coonrad was right to share. i barely get any sleep and im a sophomore in college
so my room mate (petruse) just flipped out and yelled at me to get on this blog. i can see why. good stuff. i manage to get to sleep at a pretty good time though, i guess i am a lucky one
oh wait, do you get a notification if i comment right below you? check out the post below
down here
VVVVVVV
that is such a lie bro, you are up later than me all the time
on second thought, maybe im not so lucky lololol
btw, petruse, dont we have a friend who goes to rice?
i dont think so, haha
oh, nvm then lullllzzzzzzzz
Hey, so my friend Conrad posted this link and he really recommended it. I really do like this style of writing, its like i can hear your voice. as for the issue at hand, i agree whole heartedly. i have a friend who gets about seven hours of sleep every night in college, and they wake up every morning and post something about how refreshing it is because they used to run on two hours a night in high school. its actually really annoying i hope it stops after a whole ha
*while
my bad, its late
too bad im not getting any sleep haha
lol, jacob i had to delete the post because my account is acting weird. dont worry ill bring you more traffic tomorrow. you have my respect from one author to another and i feel as though i should help you out a little