It is currently 11:30 p.m. and I am writing this article instead of sleeping. While I’d consider myself healthy in other aspects of my life, the burden that I carry every day is an atrocious lack of shut-eye.
As an athlete, a member of the Panther Press and a committed student, getting enough sleep can be hard for me. For many overwhelmed high schoolers, sleep seems to be at the very bottom of the to-do list. Everyone loves it, but during the busy school week, unfortunately sleep comes last.
I know it’s hard, but we need to start prioritizing it more.
If you’re a student athlete, getting enough rest is vital.
Sleep is often forgotten as one of the main components of physical and mental health. While many student-athletes point to a healthy diet and consistent workouts as the keys to success at practice and games, sleep can be one of the biggest catalysts in performance.
“If I have less sleep, I play so much worse, I can’t run as fast. I’m also just so mentally drained by the time I even get to the game,” sophomore field hockey player Elizabeth Whitehead said.
Constant school work and ambitious students are not a great combo. I always feel the need to push myself by taking the hardest classes and going the extra mile on assignments. Many Haven students understand the feeling of this self-imposed pressure.“ Students want to be the top of their class, the best of the best, and to do whatever they can to get there, but sometimes there needs to be a break, and realizing that that’s not always what could be best for you,” health teacher Mrs. Jenna Butler said.
I am a constant perpetrator of the grind mindset: ‘Time to lock in!’ While sometimes it feels like staying up an extra hour to finish that assignment is the best thing for you, it’s not. Unless something absolutely needs to be done, getting even 30 minutes of extra sleep is so much more beneficial.
Your work won’t be up to its standards if you complete it half asleep, and focusing in class the next day is nearly impossible. Choosing sleep can feel lazy, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Choosing sleep actually puts your academic performance first. It ensures you’ll be able to put your best foot forward at school in the future.
One of the biggest reasons for sleep loss in phone usage. A 2022 Norwegian sleep study reported that even just one hour of screen time before bed increases insomnia by 59% and lowers sleep duration by 24 minutes on average.
“You should be putting your phones away, you should not be watching TV when you go to bed because the blue light is bad for you,” Butler said. “Scrolling not only doesn’t calm your brain down but actually activates it.”
While I admit that sometimes I stay up late on my phone, I think busy students who end up staring into their screen into the night aren’t wholly at fault.
Think about it: Students wake up early to attend a seven- hour school day packed with classes, club meetings, and sometimes higher commitment programs like speech and debate, student council, or yearbook. After that, there is sports practice or a game that keeps them at school past dinner time. When they finally get home they have to focus on knocking out their homework.
That go, go, go feeling can get overwhelming. Within human nature there is a built-in need for a little me-time. For students who are that busy and who have no other openings in their day for time to themselves, those late hours are the only space. Sometimes scrolling is a necessary ritual for teens to feel like they have some sort of control over their lives.
Lack of sleep can catch up to you quickly. Studies have shown that ‘making it up’ on weekends is not a viable solution. Your psyche can suffer immensely if you don’t have enough sleep, your mental health rests on it.
“Lack of sleep will eventually almost change your personality, you can really present in a constant state of irritation. It can increase anxiety, it can even affect depression,” social studies teacher Ms. Xaras Collins said.
While taking time to yourself on your phone or grinding out some extra work at night feels like putting your needs first, it’s not. Putting your health first is putting you first. Find time to do the work when you’re alert and awake and carve out specific time on the weekend to relax, catch up on your show and doomscroll on tiktok. You will thank yourself later if you make getting eight hours of sleep during the schoolweek one of your top priorities.
I’m going to take my own advice. Goodnight.
