issue nine volume 54
munster high school
8808 Columbia Ave. Munster, IN 46321
School, study,
March 13, 2020 CATCHING Z’S Demonstrating student sleep deprivation, Srishti Sarkar, junior, falls asleep doing homework.
sleep, repeat With new proposed middle school schedule, students talk about sleep deprivation among teenagers Atarah Israel and Alexis Perez Copy Editor and Page Editor
Roaming the halls you find students hunched over and yawning, with eye bags to complete their defeated expression. During passing periods, sighs and phrases expressing fatigue have become a mantra of the hallways. Desks are cluttered with coffee cups or energy drinks. These sightings have become standard for an average school day, and are evidence of the sleep deprivation many students claim to suffer from. These dreaded early mornings have often been
battled with arguments calling for later start times. An opportunity for this appeal is now available for Wilbur Wright Middle School students, calling into question the magnitude of sleep deprivation and the effect it has had on students. “I would guess that I average, on a good week, maybe a little more than six hours of sleep during the school week,” Michael Collins, sophomore, said. “It’s exhausting.” With the tentative possibility of an altered bell schedule in the following school years for WWMS students, the most prominent change being a regular start time of 8:15 a.m. and a late start time of 8:40 p.m., the possibility to change the high school schedule is opportune. A major concern, however, is the effect this would have on extracurriculars. “I think definitely (change the bell schedule) for middle schoolers and high schoolers because we’re all growing and we need our sleep,” Michael said. “We have the big extracurriculars and sports, so obviously that contributes to it.” No matter the extracurricular or class, almost every student has felt the effects of sleep deprivation in some form. Consistent yawning, inability to focus and even falling asleep in class are common. “Since I don’t get enough sleep I’m not recharged and ready for the day ahead of me,” Antonia Linnane, senior, said. “There is just a lot to learn throughout the school day.”
Though a change in bell schedule would require adaptation, some students say the change is worth the sleep. Under the current start time, some students have already adapted unconventional sleep schedules. “I don’t follow a schedule — I simply go to sleep when I am tired, so whenever that could be at any time,” Joshua Patel, sophomore, said. “I could be up for about five hours and go back to sleep if I become bored.” Pushed to take more rigorous classes, many students, especially upperclassmen, use most of their sleep time to study and complete assignments. “Yes (sleep deprivation affects most teens), especially with the pressure to take on a lot of harder classes with extracurriculars,” Antonia said. “There’s just a lot of stuff to do, a lot of activities to do and there’s not enough time in the day to get all that stuff done so you go into your time to sleep. So, therefore you just get less sleep.” No matter the student, after school activity or sleep schedule, the lack of sleep students face is eminent. Whether it is an individual change in sleep schedule, or a school wide transformation, a reform is necessary, according to Antonia. “I think sleep deprivation is a really awful thing that’s affecting a lot of kids these days,” Antonia said. “We should definitely fix it.”
photo illustration by Lana Salahieh