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Looking back on childhood, many things—both negative and positive—come to mind: playing with imaginary friends, playing in dirt, temper tantrums in grocery stores and of course napping. For many, napping wasn’t the most desirable past time when they were younger, but now some teens look back on their hatred for sleep with sorrow for their past ignorance.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers need approximately eight to ten hours of sleep every night, but only 15 percent of adolescents get at least eight and a half hours of sleep on school nights. Part of the blame for these bad sleeping habits goes towards a biological shift in teens sleep patterns making it difficult for many to fall asleep before 11 p.m.
NS students aren’t immune to this problem and many use napping as a way to make it through their days. Sometimes the consequences that come from lack of sleep spread into students’ classes. In a recent survey done by the NS Times, it was found that 50 percent of students have a difficult time staying awake in classes.
Because of her active participation in the drill team, junior Victoria Church has a difficult time balancing her practices, homework and sleep. Unfortunately, when it comes to choosing from the three, Church often sacrifices her sleep so she can take care of all of her responsibilities. Most nights Church is only able to get four to five hours of sleep.
“I wake up at 4:30 and have to be at the school at 5:20,” Church said.
On top of her commitments with the team, Church also has commitments with school.
“I have to go to school after practice,” Church said, “and some days I have practice after school and I don’t get home until late.”
On these days, Church doesn’t have enough time to get schoolwork done and still get the suggested eight to ten hours needed for the average teen to function throughout the day. As a result, Church has a tendency to fall asleep in many of her classes.
“It depends on the class,” Church said, “but generally I get super tired from my crazy schedule and I fall asleep wherever I’m at.”
Junior Coldir Cox knows just how vital a good night’s sleep can be.
“Sleep is really crucial for high school students,” Cox said. “I know for a fact that a lot of students don’t get a lot of it.”
Unlike Church, Cox gets the recommended amount of sleep every night, but he can still understand the importance of a nap.
“I usually sleep 8 hours a night,” Cox said, “but with a lot of after school stuff happening I typically become exhausted with a lot of schoolwork [along with] everything else.”
Cox pressures himself to stay awake in classes but he is not opposed to shutting down for two or three hours once a week.
Fifty percent of the student body almost never takes naps. Some of those students don’t fully understand why others feel it necessary for naps to help them function.
“I don’t nap because I have too much to do,” junior Kendall Grasteit said, “and when I nap I don’t sleep very well at night.”
As exhausting as school can be, there are ways to lesson the amount of naps needed.
“There was a point where I’d wake up at five in the morning to go work out and stuff,” Cox said. “That never really affected me. It just meant that I had to sleep earlier and eat healthier so I could get more energy.”
