The Sleep Foundation states that most teenagers need roughly eight to 10 hours of sleep each night to stay healthy. It also states that most teenagers start getting drowsy at 11:00 PM.
Of course, this is impossible. World Journalism Preparatory School, along with most schools in New York City, starts school at eight o’clock. To get here at 7:45 AM and not get a late pass, students who ride the bus might have to wake up from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM. In total, they get anywhere from six to eight hours of sleep, assuming they somehow pass out at 11:00 PM sharp, which is absurd.
Sleeping early isn’t a solution. For a day, I moved my nighttime routine two hours back, attempting to sleep at 10:00 PM. It didn’t work. I stayed in bed awake for about two hours until I felt drowsy enough to sleep. You can’t force yourself to sleep, and can’t tell sleep-deprived teenagers to do so.
Is there a solution here? Yes, and it’s obvious: start school later. If I had slept at 11:30 PM like I usually do, and woken up at 7:30 AM, I would be getting a healthier eight hours of sleep.
Some people who like this idea say that kids would not be late all the time if they got an extra hour of sleep. However, the point isn’t to make them more servile students, the point is doing right by the kids.
So, when it comes to one of the most important, underrated aspects of our lives, can we please think of the children?
