The student news website of Omaha Central High School

Sleep recommendations need a more realistic perspective

May 1, 2018

All our lives we have been told that we need to prioritize sleep. Every night both of my parents assume that I get 8-10 hours of deep, continuous, and overall quality sleep. I have researched sleep on multiple occasions; almost every single website I have clicked on stresses that I—a 15-year-old high school sophomore who takes nine Honors/AP classes and participates in fall and spring sports—should be getting seven hours of that deep, continuous sleep at a bare minimum.
When I was in middle school, everyone I knew got that amount of sleep. The thing is: we were still apparently deprived on sleep. According to a graphic provided by sleepfoundation.org, kids from ages 6-13 are recommended to get 9-11 hours of sleep each night. For that same age group, getting 7-8 hours of sleep is said to “may be appropriate”. That same chart says that teenagers ages 14-17 are recommended to get 8-10 hours of sleep, and that teens may be able to survive off a mere seven. I wish I got seven hours of sleep every single night.
But we all must check back into this wonderful little thing called reality. Let’s take a student from Omaha Central High School who has a full schedule, does an after-school activity, and gets 8-10 hours of sleep. First, we have transportation: for me, it takes about 40 minutes from the time I get on the bus to go to school. Then, I spend eight hours at school learning. There are times during the day, such as the bus ride to and from school, some time before school, and free time during the day to get some of my homework done. After school, I either stay after school for two more hours doing sports or other activities, or I take the regular bus home at around 3:15. It takes about an hour riding either bus home. Then, we have homework. It normally takes me about 2-3 hours each night to get all my homework done. Adding up all these activities, I only have a little over 12 hours to get 8-10 hours of sleep, eat, shower, and get ready for school in the morning. Is it possible? Yes, it is.
The thing that keeps everybody from getting this godly amount of sleep is something I like to call procrastination. We all procrastinate to some degree. I don’t like to admit it, but I procrastinate too much. I wait for about an hour after I get home to do anything academically, and it is easy for me to give up whenever my homework gets too complicated. I try my absolute hardest to do as much of long projects when I first get assigned to them because I know I will forget and save them for the night before they’re due.
As upset as I am to say this, it is impossible to be one hundred percent on top of everything all four years of high school. To get everything done, you may have to survive on less than 8-10, even less than seven hours of sleep at times. Right now, it is a miracle if I get over 7.5 hours of sleep one night. Even though it is possible—and recommended—sleep experts need to realize that high schoolers cannot easily prioritize sleep and still get the work done that can secure them of the brightest future possible.

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