With our growing society more is to be expected of the younger generations. Schools, and extracurricular activities have our growing youth finding themselves with fully booked schedules. Many high school students are not getting close to the average eight hours of sleep, creating a strain on their relationship with friends and family. Loss of sleep is causing students to have trouble in their academic work, stimulating the struggle of staying awake or focusing during their vital classes. Studies have proven that one in five students get less than six hours of sleep.

Not only are students struggling in school but sleep deprivation is also negatively affecting health. Studies show that the more sleep deprived a person is the more his/her body’s T-cells go down, increasing the risk of catching a cold or flu. On top of that, his/her body fights infections with fevers. While the body is asleep there is a better fever response, this is why fevers may rise at night time. But if the body is not asleep the fever may not be fighting the infection at its best.

Aliyana Ruby-Castro,a junior, at Lincoln High School explains the struggles of school, being “stressful, difficult, and fun.” You’re probably thinking at least she said fun, but the fun she describes specifically describes her time she spends with her friends. Aliyana believes that teachers are shoveling information and work at students and expecting the students not to choke. She continued on to talk about the fact that even though she is provided with free education she is more stressed out about tests, and work she must study then enjoy the education she is receiving. Between Aliyana competing in the varsity school volleyball team and the abundance of homework she receives, she on a regular basis gets about four hours of sleep on a school night. Ultimately, makes her tired as well as struggling to pay attention in her classes.

It is clear that the negative effect of sleep deprivation is overcoming the reward of getting work done. One must remember that when the brain wants sleep, it will somehow get it whether that is falling asleep in important classes, or behind the wheel it is a setback in life and or can be fatal to oneself. Studies have been done that to improve this problem schools should start at later times. Although this is a topic afloat in communities many schools still start at early times, so research shows that as a temporary fix students should relate their bed to only sleep,making sure it is a quite and calm atmosphere to ensure that their bodies are getting sufficient rest.

A special Lion Tales “Thank You” to Andrew Arteaga for inspiring us with this topic.