Every morning, kids at Landrum wake up sleep deprived. Each day there are kids roaming around the school looking like zombies. Here at Landrum school starts at 7:30! Most kids have to wake up from 5- 6:30 to get to school. For high schoolers, school starts at 9:30. That’s a two-hour difference! Research shows that Middle schoolers need the most sleep, from 9-12 hours. When high schoolers only need about 8-10. This is a big problem in our lives, so we are asking Michael Perez what he thinks about this issue.
“I get like 8 hours of sleep each night,” says Michael. “I would have us go to school at 9:00 so we could have more sleep,” he explains. Even though it is only a one-hour difference it can create a big contrast in students’ performance at school. Early teens require a lot of sleep for their growing bodies. This will let kids sleep for 1 hour and 30 minutes more.
“I think we should get more sleep since our bodies are growing,” says Michael. This can also be bad because it can affect kids’ grades in school. They are not aware in class, and it can be hard to focus. This can lead to grades dropping
“Some days if I can’t fall asleep, I only get 6 hours of sleep,” complains Michael. This is only half of the amount of sleep you are supposed to get! If this is true for all kids, this could create bad sleeping habits for them in the future. This can also hurt kids’ physical health and mental health, especially in school.
“It makes it hard to stay awake in class when I have to wake up so early,” elaborated Michael. Teachers always are telling kids to stay awake in class and pay attention, but it can be hard to do that with not enough sleep.
Overall, teachers and students both benefit from a later schedule. That is why I think schools should alter their hours.