Being Sleep Deprived

December 3, 2010 • Max Veras, Co-Editor in Chief  
Filed under Features, Opinion, Staff, Top Stories

Most of the time, students have four academic classes: Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. They may also have a Language other than English class, which includes, Spanish and French. The student may be involved in extracurricular activities like Band, Choir, Theater Arts, Emeralds and many others.

Homework may be given to the students to help him or her practice what they learned that day. The teacher doesn’t take into consideration that the student has other classes were they get homework from also.

If each teacher gave the student homework, how would the student turn in all the homework the next day and get sleep? Well the answer is, mostly every student will stay up to finish his or her homework and be sleepy the next day. Is this the environment that the teachers want the students in?

I have had to stay up late at night, trying to finish my homework assignments that were assigned that day. Of course I regretted doing that because the next morning, I had trouble concentrating in each class. I received homework that day also, but my mind wasn’t very engaged in what was going on in the classroom so I had no idea of what to do.

I’m not alone on this. A recent poll at Clear Falls shows that 46% of students get three to six hours of sleep per night on average. 5% of voters said they get anywhere between nine to eleven hours.

 According to kidshealth.com, teenagers need about eight and a half to nine hours of sleep each night. Though most only get half of the required amount.

On a school day, I usually sleep for five to seven hours. However, on weekends, I get about nine to eleven hours of sleep.

This makes me feel refreshed the next morning as well as up and ready for the day. If I had that much sleep on a school day, maybe I would have enough energy and actually get higher grades. Nevertheless, I don’t get that much sleep due to excessive load of homework I receive.

Even though I do understand that by getting homework from the teachers we are getting more practice and gaining more knowledge, I believe that the students need more sleep than homework.

With plenty of sleep the student is more likely to function better in class and be more alert. If the student lacks sleep, then his/her mind wont be engaged and will not learn much that day.

By me being in band, newspaper, and having other classes, 3 of them Pre-AP, I have had to turn assignments in late. I do understand that my extracurricular activities are not to be used as excuses, but the teacher could take that in mind and think before giving so much homework.

As I said before, homework is helpful for us, the students, but there is no need for excessive, piles of word problems or reading passages. So teachers, please help us out. We know you all don’t like grading many homework assignments, so why give us so much? Teachers need sleep too…