Article by Kayla Venger ('23)
It is no secret that sufficient sleep is necessary to ensure positive emotional, psychological, and physical health. While sleeping, the body undergoes numerous processes of restoration, as well as the consolidation of information, which plays a vital role in strengthening both retention and concentration abilities. In an age in which society emphasizes the overall well-being of the individual, stressing the significance of a balanced diet and proper exercise, little emphasis is placed upon the importance of sleep. While the recommended levels of sleep for adolescents is 8-10 hours, roughly 72.7% of high school teens—according to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention— get less than the suggested amount.
While the recommended levels of sleep for adolescents is 8-10 hours, roughly 72.7% of high school teens receive less than the suggested amount.
Additionally, recent research has revealed the detrimental long-term impacts of chronic sleep deprivation, including retention deficits, cardiovascular disease, weakened immunity, and increased mortality rates. Emotional irregularities can be caused by a lack of sleep, even stimulating the development of emotional disorders like depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. Recent studies have also detected correlations between sleep deprivation and suicide—the third leading cause of fatalities amongst fifteen to twenty-four year olds. Three population-based studies examined the effect of sleep loss on overall lifespan, revealing that five hours or less of nightly sleep increased mortality risks by 15%. Thus, not only does sleep deprivation pose a direct attack on one’s emotional and psychological health, but it physically damages our bodies, weakening our systems, and in turn, takes years off our lives.
Chronic sleep loss has evolved into somewhat of an epidemic, particularly prevalent amongst high school teens, and such prevalence has risen in recent years. The college admission process has become increasingly competitive, and the pressure for teenage students to excel in their academic and extracurricular pursuits has become both stifling and overwhelming. High schoolers are faced on a daily basis with the task of managing schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and designated family time, a juggling act nearly impossible to achieve. After working long hours at school, students are required to complete heaps of homework on top of their after-school commitments. Consequently, they often find themselves awake at three in the morning, struggling to keep their eyes open and maintain focus.
After working long hours at school, students are required to complete heaps of homework on top of their after-school commitments.
Perhaps one of the primary causes of sleep deprivation amongst high school teens is an excessive amount of homework. One Stanford researcher, Denise Pope, put this hypothesis to the test, exposing the various negative effects of too heavy a workload. Her findings revealed that too much homework promoted stress, hindered the development of other critical life skills, and produced reductions in health which were largely attributed to lack of sleep. One of the primary outcomes of sleep deprivation is an inability to focus and recall information. During sleep, neuronal pathways form in the brain to retain newly accumulated information. Sleep deprivation exhausts the brain, thus obstructing its ability to retain information and function at its optimal best. Therefore, the objective goal of homework to ingrain certain concepts and promote a true understanding of the material at hand is, in fact, counterproductive: Students who lose sleep in efforts to complete assigned homework find it more difficult to concentrate in class, and thus absorption of the material is hindered.
The objective goal of homework to ingrain certain concepts and promote a true understanding of the material at hand is ,in fact,counterproductive.
Furthermore, in addition to homework, early starting hours rob students of their most precious sleep, particularly cutting short the REM phase (the stage of sleep in which dreaming occurs), which has been deemed the most “productive” stage of sleep. Teens have a biological tendency to sleep later, as their circadian rhythms, or internal “clocks” are biologically programmed to stay up late. Therefore, the combination of heavy workloads with early morning hours virtually forces teenagers to work against those biological tendencies, posing a more dangerous threat to their overall well-being.
Some schools, such as Scripps Ranch High School in San Diego, have begun to implement a later school schedule in efforts to improve student concentration; however, it is unlikely that this alone will solve the issue of constant student exhaustion. Of course, lack of sufficient sleep cannot be entirely attributed to homework, as a combination of factors—such as cell phone usage, early starting hours, and external social pressures—work together in depriving students of vital rest. Limitations on homework, however, could drastically improve such conditions, relieving a tremendous amount of stress, granting teens more freedom to pursue their deepest interests, and, through adequate sleep, allowing students to perform at their optimal best.
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