Exhaustion is lingering among students

  Teenagers are known to leave their mark as “grumpy,” “hard headed” adolescents, but there may be some aspects that contribute to the mood swings and constant attitudes that seem to convey a different message than intended.

  In the Gresham-Barlow school district, high schools begin at such an early time which doesn’t seem bizarre until you compare the schedule to middle schools who are also in our district.

  Middle schools begin at 9:05, and that’s on a “regular” day. You would think that the schedules would actually be vise versa, because high schoolers are more challenged when it comes to education. Upperclassmen are held to higher standards due to the constant preparation for exams, finals, and the most challenging of all, the SATs.

  “Not getting enough sleep does play a factor, I feel like you won’t be able to focus as well if you’re tired,” Sophomore Makayla Monaco said.

  The schedule is not the only contribution to the lack of sleep. Your daily schedule plays a big role in your life depending on the time you go to sleep and wake up. If you choose to stay up later on a school night, you are more likely to wake up exhausted.

  Statistics say that “80% of American adolescent students are suffering from sleep deprivation,” according to jamanetwork.com a website that focuses on the human body and how it functions.

  Sleep deprivation can cause many health risks such as sleepiness, mood changes, difficulty concentrating and impaired performance, memory and thinking problems, disorientation, hallucinations, paranoia, disorientation, somatic pain complaints, disruption of sleep cycle. These symptomes accommodate with increasing the risk of car accidents regarding teen driving, and how this can contribute to being dysfunctional and less aware of surroundings.

  “Adolescents should be receiving eight to nine hours of sleep, but that seems to not be the case,” Principal Michael Schaefer said.

  Clearly teenagers are not meeting these requirements due to all of the after school activities, homework, and of course jobs that many high schoolers have. Having chaotic days, or any other scenarios that students seem to face can only become more stressful when having to wake up extremely early, and having to sit in a classroom for seven hours.