Angela Wang 
These days, students tend to have less sleep than they are supposed to, resulting in many negative effects in the day. Even if they only had 4-5 hours of sleep, they would still drag themselves through eight periods and tell anyone who asks that they’re “fine”. In high school, being tired isn’t an exception, it’s the baseline.
Teenagers are supposed to get between 8-10 hours of sleep every night, but ask any student how much they actually get, the answer usually turn out to be “not enough”. Here’s the strange part: students wear it like a badge. The phrase “I’m so tired” became a greeting that they say to each other. It seems as if it’s a handshake and showing that they’re working hard and belong with others. Exhaustion has stopped being a warning sign, but it became a symbol of status.
With the first sleep debt, a cycle starts. When students are sleep-deprived, everything seems to get harder. Reading a paragraph, focusing on the lecture, regulating their emotions. Even simple tasks feel difficult. When they start to work slower, it means that they would have to stay up later. They get to sleep even less, which means they will work slower still tomorrow. It’s a loop that the only exit is extra time, which nobody seems to have.
None of this gets said. Instead, they laugh it off. “I’m so tired”. Everyone around nods, because they know.
The weird thing is that nobody is alone. Looking around the classroom, everyone is tired, even the teacher. Exhaustion is something that everyone shares but nobody talks about it honestly. Teenagers joke and post about it. But they rarely stop and say that it’s not normal.
There is only one question worth asking: What are they still doing awake late at night? Sleep isn’t the enemy, it never was. The work will be there tomorrow; in this moment, the most important is their sleep.
Image credit:
brainandlife.org
