PAGE 12 || LIFESTYLES
Students struggle to stay awake during school. Photos by Evie Ansari.
WILL STUDENTS PAY OFF THEIR SLEEP DEBT?
RHS students express their views on school start times
EVIE ANSARI
STAFFWRITER
Many Rochester High School students
wake up in the morning longing for
another hour of sleep. The night before,
they are swamped with homework and
extracurriculars. They enter school feeling
tired and go though the first couple hours
of the day half asleep.
Freshman Dru Haney always feels tired,
even tough she tries to get a good amount
of sleep.
“I get up at 6:55 a.m. unless I have a
meeting before school,” Haney said. “I want
to sleep in as much as I can and still get
ready on time.”
Haney goes to sleep after sports and
homework at about 9:30 p.m. to try to
get as much sleep as possible. Others, like
freshman Mayu Seguchi, get even less sleep.
“I go to sleep around 1 a.m. because I have
about 3 1/2 hours of dance at night and
have to finish a large amount of homework
from accelerated classes,” Seguchi said.
“Also, I have to spend a little time helping
my family, like walking the dog or [doing]
the dishes.”
Many students have clubs and sports after
school on top of homework to do, and they
are still expected to get the right amount of
sleep.
“Research shows the typical adolescent’s
natural time to fall asleep may be 11 p.m.
or later; because of this change in their
internal clocks, teens may feel wide awake
at bedtime,” the National Sleep Foundation
states on its website. “This leads to sleep
deprivation in many teens who must wake
up early for school, and thus do not get
the 8 1/2 - 9 1/4 hours of sleep that they
need.” Senior Hope Laurencelle stays up late due
For this reason, freshman Mehr Bangash is
tired during school.
“I am tired in the morning but usually
am woken up by the time it is 2nd hour,”
Bangash said.
Junior Tarek Murray tries to get to sleep at
around 10 p.m. and still gets up early enough
for marching band.
“Because I do band, I get up some
mornings at 5 because fight song is at 6:20,
or sometimes 6:30 for jazz band. I do these
because I need a lot of time to get ready and
be warmed up,” Murray said. “On non-band
days, I try to get up at around 6:20 a.m.
or earlier. Usually on these mornings I get
pretty groggy because I’m not doing band,
so I don’t get my morning dose of activity.”
Dr. Sheryl Wissman from Ascension
Providence Rochester gave advice about
“good sleep hygiene.”
“Sleep only enough to be rested and then
get out of bed, be consistent and go to bed
and get up the same time every day. Don’t
force yourself to sleep,” Dr. Wissman said.
Freshman Peyton Osentoski is affected
during the school day by the lack of sleep he
gets.
“When I am tired, it’s hard to pay attention
if the class is going slow or if I don’t have to
be involved in anything,” Osentoski said.
Freshman Dylan Fitzgerald expresses how
homework affects sleep routines and how
students are in the morning.
“Teenagers need more sleep, and an early
start time doesn’t allow that, especially
because some people have a lot of
homework to work on,” Fitzgerald said.
“Also, your brain doesn’t retain information
very much in the morning.”
to her AP classes, which causes her to not be
THE TALON || SPRING 2019
as concentrated during class.
“I think it should start at 8:00 a.m. instead
because it allows for kids to have more time
to rejuvenate,” Laurencelle said.
Osentoski points out that the early start
might not help students get more sleep.
“I think that school may start a little early,
but it’s not too bad because getting out later
would keep us up more at night,” Osentoski
said.
Haney, Seguchi, Murray, Bangash,
Osentoski, Fitzgerald and Laurencelle all get
at least five hours of sleep and at the most
eight hours.
“I think the school starting time is too early
because by the time I’m sleeping, I only get
maybe six hours of sleep,” Bangash said.
Doctor Wissmen knows that teenagers
should get 8-10 hours of sleep, which most
high school students aren’t getting. This can
cause “sleep jet lag,” which is when students
may struggle to stay awake during school
and activities and try to catch up on sleep
over the weekend.
“This can cause problems such as
accidents if [people] fall asleep while driving,
mistakes on the job, health problems such as
lowering immunity and increased infections,
and over time can cause obesity and heart
disease and can cause stress and avoiding
activities, because [people are] afraid [they]
will fall asleep during them,” Wissmen said.
There are various consequences of lacking
sleep for students and teachers, one of the
most prominent being the amount of effort
put into work.
“I do think school starts too early. All I
hear in the morning is how tired people
are, and even first hour teachers talk about
how we are all tired and quiet in their class,”
Seguchi said “Research has proved that
we are not fully awake and it can help our
performance at school if we get more sleep.”
Although students are tired during the day
due to lack of sleep, they are also worried
that a later start time would impact after
school activities and would not change the
amount of sleep they get.
“But at the same time, a majority of
students have activities to do after school
and pushing the start time could interfere
with this, giving us less time, which means
we might not go to bed till later and wake
up later, which would equal out to the same
amount of time,” Seguchi said. “But yes I do
believe school should start later. Everyone,
student or teacher, could benefit from it.”
Tips for a good night sleep
Avoid eating or drinking close to
bedtime
Try excersing before bed
Have a consistant routine. Get up and
go to sleep at the same time each
night
Create peaceful sleep enviroment
Write worries down in a worry book to
address them the next day
Do something relaxing until sleep
comes
Avoid using technology before bed