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Student Life: Healthy sleeping patterns

Sleep habits are more important than we think. As teenagers we go through one of the biggest developmental periods of our lives, which means we should be sleeping more.

Sleep habits are more important than we think. As teenagers we go through one of the biggest developmental periods of our lives, which means we should be sleeping more. Teens need at least nine and a half hours of sleep per night, yet we are only sleeping an average of seven hours each day.

One issue is the time we start our day at school. We should be starting our day off no earlier than 8:30 am, but perhaps 10 am would be more reasonable.
Research shows the average teenager has difficulty processing until that hour. We may be able to fit in an extra hour of sleep and feel more rested and prepared to face the rest of the day.

Why are we only sleeping for seven hours?

As teens we have a habit of going to bed at an unreasonable hour, but why? Perhaps it is all the academic stress we face, especially at a late hour when we have the time to think. Staying up late to finish homework is not an uncommon occurrence, but some of us also wake up early to finish a project even after a late night.

We also have the gift of technology to waste away hours at night. It is not hard to become lost on the internet, constantly telling yourself, “Just one more click,” or, “I’ll turn it off in 15 minutes.”

At times we stay up to the point where, even if we did go to sleep, we would basically only be running on three hours of rest.

We need to realize that running on such little sleep can have serious effects on our bodies.

We need rest. So much goes on when we shut our eyes and begin to dream and so many benefits come with sleep; a healthy amount can be associated with living longer, better memory, reduced levels of stress and improved general well-being.

There should be no shame around going to bed earlier. If we want to take care of our bodies we need to create healthy sleeping patterns.
We need to know it will improve our current well-being and ability to work in school. Developing these healthy patterns will also affect our adult life.

Macy How is a grade nine student at École Côte-du-Soleil.