Time doesn’t seem to add up.
I spend seven hours in school a day and at least an hour
getting ready for and driving to school.
I spend, on average, two hours after school per day, although some days
I’ll be at the school for an additional six hours. I get about six hours of homework per
night, a little less than an hour per class.
This amount tends to increase if I have a project or studying to do.
I try to get six hours of sleep a night although usually
I’m pulling four or five.
I spend an hour a day on chores and other family
obligations.
If you haven’t done the math already, that adds up to
about twenty-three hours.
I have one hour in my day left.
That leaves an hour to work on college applications, have
a job, take care of personal care and hygiene, eat, take care of pets,
exercise, learn how to drive, study for standardized tests, do volunteer work
(it'll look good on those college applications!), and maybe, if the stars all
align, I’ll be able to have a social life, or do activities that I actually want to do.
Now, I know I’m just one drop in an ocean of students,
one lone voice in a choir, but I know I’m not the only one who struggles with
this simple arithmetic.
Sleep Is For The Weak
Sleep is a hot commodity at my school. And, if you can’t brag about how much you
slept the night before, you’ll brag about how little you slept. It’s become a social status point of some
sorts.
“You’ll never believe it, I got seven hours last night!”
“What?! How?! I got three.
Let’s hear it for ‘team no sleep!”
Through the
hallways and the lunch tables, students discuss covert ways of getting shut-eye
during class, or in quiet places around the school. It’s not uncommon to find students trying to get
hall passes to the nurse’s office so that they can sleep in peace. Kids speak of their crazed sleep schedule, some stopping homework at 10:00 PM, where they then sleep for five hours until 3:00 AM, where they wake up, finish their homework, and go to school.
According to the Sleep Foundation, teens need about eight
to ten hours of sleep per night. Only
about 15% of teens make this amount every night. Like I said earlier, I’m pulling about half
that amount, and I make an effort to get enough sleep.
While many parents and teachers across the nation point
fingers at cell phones, for example, my personal experience has led me to
believe that on weeknights, it is not technology keeping teenagers awake, but
homework. A common refrain echoed
through the hallways is “I have more work that I actually have time to do
it.”
Caffeine has become a lifestyle, a quick way to get a
kick before first period starts at 7:33 AM.
Teens are guzzling it down, many kids at my school toting around large
32 ounce water bottles filled with lukewarm coffee. There’s a kid in my Spanish class who downs a
Mountain Dew every morning, and another in my friend’s first period history
class who chugs an entire Monster Energy before the Pledge of Allegiance.
The side effects of caffeine consumption are
alarming. According to
CaffeineInformer.com, this stimulant can create a higher risk for heart attacks
in young adults, along with a host of other heart problems. Not only that, but caffeine can also put
users at risk for ulcers, infertility, and a greater dependence on caffeine.
The real problems start when teens are ready to go to
bed, many teens finding that they simply can’t
fall asleep when they want to. As a
result, over-the-counter sleep medications have become a trend at my school.
This cycle of lost sleep now places students in a
precarious position where they need a drug to wake up, and another to fall
asleep. Many are dependent on these
aides, a dependency that could last a lifetime.
Sleep deprivation has become an epidemic of sorts in high
schools, and this is only the tip of a much deeper, and darker iceberg.
The Push to Succeed
The American lifestyle is more competitive than
ever. Standardized tests have turned
education into a rat race filled with points, scores, and ranks. Students are constantly comparing class ranks
and GPA’s trying to assure themselves that they’re keeping up, that they’re not
falling behind.
This type of environment breeds a high level of anxiety
and stress, sometimes pushing students to extreme lengths. Among the AP-level students last year, it was
well established that there was an underground substance ring that was utilized
by stressed out scholars.
In one day last
year, I encountered two different students having mental breakdowns. Actual mental breakdowns, in which they
completely fell apart, due to the stress that was being piled on them.
It was a few months ago that me and my friends were
sitting around a bonfire following a dance at my school. We talked about the usual, relationships, the
latest Twitter update, but we soon fell into the subject of school, and the
stress and pressure we had all been feeling.
It was then that one teenager, about fifteen years old, came forward
about a class that had pushed him too far.
It was his favorite class, one that he had dedicated
himself to, but the teacher was demanding, pushing him and pushing him until…
“I almost did it guys.
Twice, actually. I was that close.”
“To what?”
“You know. Taking
my life.”
We fell into a stunned silence, as the fire crackled
away. This kid wasn’t chronically
depressed, nor did he have a history of suicidal behaviors. And yet, the stress and pressure he had felt
had pushed him far too close to the edge.
Other stories started coming out that night, of near-attempts, and those
who had tried it, but thankfully lived to tell the tale.
That night, I felt like I had stumbled into a dark underworld,
where stories like these were all too common, and quickly swept under the rug.
Later that weekend, I received a text from a friend
saying that someone we knew was in the hospital. The family thought it may have been an
overdose.
Later
on, an attempt was ruled out (they suspected that it was an accident) but the
stomach dropping feeling of receiving a message like the one I had lingered
with me, as a grim reminder of what could have been.
Because the scariest part of the situation wasn’t that it
happened. It was how fast we moved past
denying it was an attempt. We all knew
it was far too likely.
One girl in my English class last year provided a
haunting testimony into what she called “The Real Secret Lives of American
Teenagers”. There, she delved into the
online world, where some teens feel more alive there than they do when they are
disconnected. However, as I discovered
the night I spent at the bonfire, there are secrets to this new and innovative
digital world that we live in.
The girl in my class talked about the online friends
she’s has, and her relationships with people she’s never been able to meet in
real life. However, one particular line
has stuck with me for almost two years now.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been up until four
in the morning trying to talk someone out of suicide.”
At that moment, the classroom fell into a stony silence. Because no student is equipped to be a therapist
in such a dire moment. No student should
have to be a therapist. And yet, who
else will step up if they don’t? Who
else, besides a student’s peers, will hear their cries for help and see the
warning signs?
In my experience, the family does not read the signs.
The school does not read the signs, either.
A survey from the Washington, D.C.-based American
Psychological Association found
that teens that mirror adults’ high stress levels are “potentially setting
themselves up for a future of chronic stress and chronic illness”. Michael Bradley, a psychologist specializing in
teens was quoted as saying “…I will fall back on the fact that hard numbers
tell us kids are more anxious and depressed than they've ever been."
I can’t tell you how many of my friends have suffered
mentally over the past four years in high school, and I’m sure there are many
more that I don’t know about. This propensity
is alarming, actually, quite frankly, terrifying.
Where are We Going?
These heightened levels of anxiety and stress can be
affected by lack of sleep, which is a result of the demands put in place by schools
today. In the end, students are stuck in
vicious cycles that cannot be broken unless change is made, and quickly.
Coming from a student who has lived through more than
three years of low sleep and high stress, I want to make clear how urgent this
problem we face is. Too many friends of
mine have fallen from the chipper freshmen they once were, to exhausted seniors
who are praying to make it to the bell without falling asleep.
Being a teenager is already stressful, as we take on more
adult responsibilities, navigate the complicated relationships in a high
school, and try to make sense of the world around us. I didn't even touch on other sources of stress a teenager may encounter, such as financial, family, health, or social.
Schools should be a safe haven, not a fortress of dread. When will the we realize that there is a
problem with our teens and the demands being placed on us? We need better counseling and a better educator understanding of just how fast workloads pile up.
We are far from lazy, and I am not one to complain of
high-demands. But there are days I miss
meals to do work, or days where my eyes will start watering on the way to school, because
I didn’t get enough sleep the night before, or the night before that, or the
night before that.
It’s not a matter of work ethic, but rather simply,
health.
How many more will be lost before this problem is faced
head on?
Points: 90000
Reviews: 1085
Donate