Students’ alarms blare at 5 in the morning, after sleeping for few hours, to get ready for a 7 a.m.-1:40 p.m. school day. Despite being exhausted, they have to get up and ready for an early morning of learning. Because of this, students feel less awake and attentive during class time. The decline in student motivation and effort is often caused by their lack of sleep. Some students here at NKHS feel as though they don’t get enough rest, whether it is from homework, jobs, or pushing themselves to have more free time after a busy day. Because of this, students’ grades tend to drop, causing them to be more stressed, leading to late-night working or overthinking; thus the cycle of work, school, and little sleep repeats.
Waking up at 5-6 a.m. isn’t an easy thing to do for most high school students. Oftentimes they feel as though no amount of coffee could wake them up. This is mostly because during nighttime they’re up working or tossing and turning. Such heavy workloads lead to more stress and less time. Some students have to cram all their daily needs into such a short amount of time, leading them to have lower grades and/or just not reaching their true potential. Being out the door at 6-6:30 a.m. to catch the bus or a ride is often their last moment to rest before having more work added onto their plate. When high school students go to class sleep deprived, oftentimes they aren’t working or putting in effort, leading them to have an overflowing plate of work, meaning more sleepless nights.
This doesn’t just happen to students, but teachers at NKHS as well. Some staff members experience sleepless nights, and oftentimes, this ends up hurting their students’ academic success and/or their own teaching skills. Teachers not getting enough sleep can lead to less patience with students.
“When we are more tired, our frontal lobe doesn’t work as much. So our organization, our thought patterns just don’t work as well. And I know if I don’t sleep well I’m not the best social worker I can be,” said Mr. Matt Hughes.
When students are asked how they notice lack of sleep in themselves and their peers, they often say they lack attention and people are struggling just to stay awake. They also mention how experiencing a school day with little sleep is a bigger issue in their life and leads to a worse school day.
Junior Christopher Demers said, “It’s pretty horrible. Nobody pays attention in class. Everyone’s falling asleep.”
People sometimes wonder why students are struggling so heavily with sleep. Some NKHS pupils say it’s because of their daily schedule. Most students work jobs or go to after school activities, and the majority of high schoolers have a heavy workload. Some students just don’t have time to do everything and sleep a healthy amount, causing them to not be at their full potential in school.
“My sleep schedule ranges from eight hours to like four,” said sophomore Ellie Arsenault,” and usually on the days I get four hours of sleep, I’m less attentive. I think students get less sleep because they have things to do like jobs, clubs, homework and even if that doesn’t keep you up until one in the morning, you want free time for yourself and end up staying up way too late.”
When students do not get enough hours of rest, it has a negative effect on not only their academic performance, but their mental health. When not well rested some students tend to get more emotional, quieter, or even take it out on friends and/or other peers.
“Usually heightened emotions. They just cannot control their emotions anymore. It’s either like crying or everything’s a big deal,” said guidance counselor Mrs. Barbara-Jean Mancini.
