Teens aren’t getting enough sleep, and homework isn’t helping
November 24, 2008 by Adriana Janovich
Filed under Stories
By COLLEEN FONTANA
UNLEASHED STAFF
I pause in my attempts to study for a test to reach out and clutch my hot tea mug against my cold hands.
Coughing, I drink, hoping to subdue the rasps in my throat as I look up at the clock, glad that it is not yet midnight. I choose a new song on my iPod and pick up my notecards — “mitochondria” and “prokaryotic cells” — to flip through for the tomorrow’s test. I would be in bed already, but a volleyball game in Wenatchee didn’t get me home until 11 p.m., and other subjects prolonged what looks like a sleepless night.
Swallowing the cherry-flavored cough drop in my mouth, I read through my highlighted notes, trying hard to make sense of the masses of information. For me, and many of my fellow International Bacclaureate classmates, this is just another night of the 180 days that make up our school year.
Apparently, every teacher thinks he is the only one giving out homework. The policy we should have a half hour of homework a night from each class is laughable, and I think teachers enjoy it being so.
They thrive on our groans and complaints; our cries seem only to fuel big assignments and hard tests. It wouldn’t amount to much of a problem if school were the only thing on our agendas as teenagers. However, we like to be involved in everything, and that is no exaggeration. Sports, dance, music, clubs, youth groups, jobs; these are just a few things we have to occupy our time. Sure, we bring the busy-ness upon ourselves, but as though to dispute our want to get involved, teachers give us a project or two.
The school workload affects us in subtle ways, but they are ways which build up and amount to something more. Losing out on sleep makes us less able to function in activities for days afterward. Stressing over tests and projects adds to the tiredness and creates frustration. Such frustration makes us slightly difficult to live with, and as result, we earn the stereotypical name of “difficult teenager.”
And we’re not alone. According to the Better Sleep Council, a stress and sleep survey found that 65 precent of Americans are losing sleep due to stress. Long days and late nights enable us to finish our work, but how much are we actually getting out of school when we get only a few hours of sleep each night?
Lack of sleep leads to poor performance in class and often results in our falling asleep during particularly long lectures. According to the American Sleep Disorders Association, the average teen needs about nine and a half hours of sleep each night.
I consider myself well-rested if I get five.
Maybe it’s the culture of this generation that keeps us from getting the sleep we need. Distractions including iPods, MySpace and Xboxes, as well as the ever-so-addicting “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Dancing With the Stars” can lead us to procrastination on chores we should be doing, also resulting in late nights.
However, the amount of schoolwork we get doesn’t help matters. In talking to fellow students at Davis HIgh School, I came to the conclusion that the average IB student will spend three to five hours on homework every night. Now, add to that our numerous activities as well a bit of a social life which we need to stay sane, and it’s no wonder we get as irritable as we do when our lives get hectic.
I don’t want forgiveness for the mood swings of teenagers. I just want some understanding. Our generation is hardworking and persevering. We are opinionated and goal-oriented and extremely involved, and, yes, we still need lots of sleep.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, though, 85 percent of teens do not get enough sleep at night. In response to these statistics, I believe it is the responsibility of our parents and especially our teachers, to help ensure we get the rest we need to be fully functional every day.
After all, you wouldn’t want “America’s future” to sleep right through it!
— Colleen Fontana is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.
Colleen you are right., being a teenager myself and just coming out of volleyball season. It is very stressful trying to attain a regular life with friends and family, doing extracciricular activiteis; helping with youth group on thursdays and attending youth group on sundays, as well as sports. Not only that but the regular homework that we have stacks of everyday. Some homework I heve to work on either in the class before or the class it is due in in two minutes. It is a struggle to know that no one considers what we have going on and when we tell them they basically throw it back in our face and say, “Deal with it.” You think that they would understand that we have stress as well in our lives with trying to keep everything balanced, but they do not. I got in a little arguement awhile ago with my mom about being stressed. Her words to me were ” stress? how can you have stress?” It hurt to know that many parents and adults do not understand the pressures of teenagers today. Glad you could wirte the column. Maybe this will shed some light on all adults’ minds about teenagers today. =)
I hate having homework. i mean, i know that homework is supposed to be good for me but it doesnt seem to help. All my teachers give me tons of home work every night. I HATE HOME WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the only subject we should have homework in is math because thats not just memorizing stuff you hace to actually learn how to do the eqasions. thanks from joel
Thank you Colleen for writing this article. I too am a fellow high school student and i believe that homework is not as important as sleep. Yes homework is supposed to reinforce what you learned however, what is the point of reinforcing what you learned when you forget it anyway because of the lack of sleep. I also don’t believe that homework should be a vital part of your future. Well anyway, thank you for the info.
Why do we need homework? We are already in school for atleast 6 hours. Teachers act like there are the one we have, so they all assign these big projects and hours of homework and they still expect us to get “involved.” I barely get 5 hours of sleep and I’m in 9th grade. The next few years ate going to be hell.
i believe that homework does take time away from family friends and of cource our lifes homework is not helping us at all they should really banned homework and maybe all these teens would not suffer from stress or any other problems related to homework.I am a student at a florida middle school and i will be going to high school in like 3-4 months and there will be alot of classes so i think homework is a waist of my time.ummm maybe thats why they call it class work
thanks colleen for this artical i really needed to say how i felt about homework being banned and i hope america comes to there sences
I agree with Colleen. But still, I think that the amount of homework should just lessen a bit. It should NOT be banned.
I hate homework
school is school and when school is over there should be no homework
Hi Guys…
Hope you don’t mind if a parent chimes in.
I totally agree with you about the amount of homework. It is now 4:30 and I am up because I found our daughter doing homework still at 3:30. This is only the first week back to school. This is a very bad thing!
I know she is smart. She is much smarter than I…however I also know that when it comes to organizing and doing her homework it is not one of her best skills. This is entirely my fault because I have been reading about good study habits for years. I know that she should come home and relax for about an hour after school and then start in on her homework without distractions (like TV or the internet). I am not there to enforce this as I should be.
I also find that the quantity of homework is over the top. I have to agree it seems that teachers think that they are the only class that assigns homework and don’t consider the effort it really takes. To me it appears that some of them just assign it as busy work and don’t even take the time to properly grade it – to me that is a major bummer.
There has to be some sort of resolution to this problem…unfortunately I don’t have it. I only stumbled across this article looking for a solution myself.
Colleen…thanks for your editorial.
The rest of you that commented…well…some of you may want to do a little more homework, or at least learn how to spell check and proofread. :~)
Regards,
Paul
Wow.
You have no idea how happy you’ve made me just to find someone who I can relate to about massive stacks of homework I’m required to do…every single weekday. At the moment, it is 12:17. I am currently annotating a little over eight full pages of Brutus and Antony’s speeches (I’ve just finished page three), after which I have an essay map to complete for an in class essay regarding the same dreadful topic, two pages of Spanish work to write out, Biology to study for an upcoming test, a SEVEN PARAGRAPH essay to write on the renaissance, and I kid you not when I say all but the first assignments mentioned were assigned yesterday. I find it absolutely ridiculous that every last one of my teachers can’t seem to comprehend the fact that humans within the age range of 14-18 still actually sleep!
I would continue, but I have a fairly full plate at the moment. Nonetheless, this cheered me up more than you know. Night guys B)
-Max