Senior Brady Holtgrewe is constantly running around during the day. To him, that means going to school, to lacrosse practice, and then going to one of his many siblings’ sporting events, such as wrestling or soccer. At the end of the day, he is exhausted and still has schoolwork to complete, leaving him no choice but to sacrifice his sleep.
We all know teenagers don’t get enough sleep, but how does it affect their productivity? Obviously, students work poorly without rest, but how do they feel about it? At all of the Francis Howell high schools, the start time is 7:20 a.m., which might not feel early to some, but our students disagree. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers are meant to get eight to 10 hours per night. When considering transportation and the time it takes to get ready, most students are waking up around six, which means going to bed around eight. In reality, most students aren’t going to bed until eleven or twelve, which is only six to seven hours per night.
School start time has been a discussion that has plagued the education industry for as long as it has existed. The problem with school start times is that if we were to delay the start of the day for students to get more sleep, the school day would extend to a later end time. Holtgrewe gets five hours of sleep at most on a school night. He believes high schools should change the start time due to work, homework, and extracurricular activities.
“[School should start later], especially high school, because we really do a lot. Whereas in elementary school and middle school, they typically don’t have homework or jobs. They might not need as much sleep, because they’re doing less than us,” Holtgrewe said.
Junior Danny Maher disagrees with the idea of pushing school back, but agrees that students don’t get enough sleep due to work, homework, and their social life. The lack of sleep is also a lack of responsibility, due to being on their phone or being distracted.
“I think 7:20 is fine. If we pushed the day back later, we wouldn’t get out as early. We wouldn’t have enough time to do homework or go to practice,” Maher said. “If I have a test or homework, if it’s important enough, I will stay up later to do it, but if I don’t think it’s that important, I’ll go to sleep, and I’ll get [to] school early to study.”
Even if the start time is moved, students will still be sleep-deprived. So, other schools in the Missouri area, like the Rockwood School District and the Wentzville School District, have considered shorter weeks or block scheduling to help give students a break. This helps prevent burnout from being at school all of the time. For example, Marquette has a block schedule, which allows them to only have three to four classes per day; they rotate days so students aren’t stuck in the same regiment of all seven classes over and over. Recess in the cycle can help break up the monotony of the stressful schedule students endure.
Junior Ethan Rausch, who sometimes works up to 30 hours during the school week, has seen the effects of not getting enough sleep and how it hinders his productivity in school. When students sleep in class or they are not engaged, they can’t actively recall information, and they will not participate in class.
“[If I don’t get enough sleep], I’m not as focused or energized on the lesson. Or, I sleep in class, and then I don’t know what’s going on,” Rausch said. “I work a lot during the week, usually until nine o’clock, and that definitely contributes to my [lack of sleep].”
