Sleep has been a struggle amongst highschool students since any of us could remember. The average student has after school activities including sports, clubs, and honor societies, while also needing to finish their homework. Students have busy lives and because of this, many do not get enough sleep.

Andrea Kaiser said, “I’m up doing homework or I had an activity that ended late that night and then I had to go and do homework.”

With so many things demanding students’ time, they have to manage their time wisely and decide what to do and when. Because extracurriculars are at a specific time, students often get home late in the evening and begin their homework then. These students stay up finishing their homework because throughout their lives they have been told that grades are the end all be all.

Parents and teachers have always told students that school and grades are extremely important. This sort of pressure drives students to do their homework and work for their grades, and it only increases when students are involved in after school activities. 

“It’s when a teacher gives pointless homework. That’s where I feel the problem comes in,” said Kaiser. 

Many teachers, as many have experienced, give out unhelpful assignments that are just grades in Powerschool and don’t really teach students anything. These types of assignments lengthen the amount of homework students must do each night and increase students’ stress levels while decreasing the amount of sleep they get each night. 

“Some teachers have a policy… that they don’t like to give a lot of homework which I think is good, but they still give meaningful homework,” said Kaiser.

When teachers give more meaningful homework that is genuinely intended to help students practice and learn the material, students often feel less stressed and understand the material better. This is mainly because when students have less homework to do, often times they can focus on each individual assignment, and truly understand the concepts as opposed to rushing through just to finish the assignment. 

Megha Gaonkar said, “I’ll be really tired so the information is all blurry, and I can’t focus as much.” 

As many know, sleep is vital to the human body, especially as teenasgers in high school. Without enough sleep students cannot work as efficiently or focus enough in class to grasp important concepts. Students can hardly succeed in school without sufficient sleep.