By Babiha Kaur, staff writer
At 7:25 a.m. every morning at River Hill High School, the late bell rings, after which teachers mark students tardy. Students have varying opinions regarding the rigid school start time and if the large amount of homework they are getting on a daily basis affects their sleep schedule
“I’m tired all the time,” sophomore Kylie Stuart stated when asked if she gets enough sleep per night. She confessed that she sleeps for five to six hours nightly and believes that schoolwork greatly affects this. Kylie shared that homework “definitely affects my sleep schedule a lot, because A: I have to stay up late to work a lot of the time, and B: Sometimes I’m just thinking about it; if I don’t get it done I can’t sleep because I’m stressing about it.” Stressing about homework doesn’t help, as revealed through Kylie. It forces her to sleep much later than she would like. Additionally, Kylie wishes that school started later than 7:25 am, supposedly an hour later, because she needs her sleep, and argues that starting an hour later won’t affect the amount of time she has to do things in the evening after school.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teenagers between the ages of thirteen and eighteen get eight to ten hours of sleep per night. A large number of students at River Hill get much less than this, and the majority of them want school to start later than it does now. However, students who are generally getting enough sleep are not as affected by school’s start time than other students are.
Gabi Demuren, another student at River Hill, announced that she gets six to seven hours of sleep, on average, every night. She also mentioned that she gets a fair amount of homework daily, which usually takes her a few hours to complete. Gabi commented that homework and other extracurricular activities affect her sleep schedule “100%.” Depending on the day, she either finishes homework late at night or before school, and doesn’t feel like this is a healthy schedule. When asked if she thinks school starts too early, Gabi stated, “I do. Sometimes I think it’s hard to juggle everything and then, once again, have to get to school on time super early.” She agrees that the current school start times are early and s that starting school around 8:00 would be greatly beneficial because she would be able to “manage and get more done in the morning.”
After conducting many interviews, it seems the consensus is that high schoolers feel classes begin too early for the amount of homework they get each night. There is simply more work than time allots, with sleep getting sacrificed. However, on the contrary, some students prefer school’s start time being closer to 7:00 than to 8:00.
Lucienne Herberholz, another sophomore, does not blame homework as her reason for not getting enough sleep. Although she gets a reasonable amount of homework and not enough rest, she prefers school to start earlier, stating, “I like having my afternoon time. Even though waking up early is bothersome, I genuinely think it’s better than being home [late] at 4 p.m.” Lucienne believes that starting school early is better for her because “it takes more time away from the day.” She revealed that, if she could, she would not change school’s start time. Additionally, she announced, “Despite grumbling in the morning about waking up so early, I think it’s good to get home at 2:00. I can get my things out of the way and still have time.”
While there is some difference in opinion about start times, most students seem to agree with Kylie’s assessment that, “If we could start later so we could actually get more sleep, that would be great.”