By Sofia Rudus ’26
Sleep is very important for strong physical and mental health and is a time for the body and mind to rest. However, there is no doubt that school is busy and full of activities, work and other related things. Due to these activities, students may not use their time wisely and choose to play video games or go on their phone even after a busy day already. Students often undervalue sleep by not prioritizing it enough. This article will explore the reasons why students undervalue sleep and how they can adjust to better habits.
From personal experience, it is very tempting to stay up late and push off homework and other responsibilities. Phones and other distractions are within reach, and because of their usage, they become huge factors in sleep deprivation. It is much easier to simply go on your phone and mindlessly scroll on TikTok or Instagram instead of doing homework. This becomes a harmful cycle, made from the combination of these distractions, stress and poor time management. Vincent Trinh ‘25, shares this same experience and weighs how procrastination and doing work connect to each other. “Well, procrastination does stem from stress, and there is a lot of stress from having an overload of schoolwork or responsibilities…it’s either I do my work and I focus on it, or I procrastinate and I get more stressed thinking of doing work later.” Students have lots of stress from a variety of assignments, responsibilities and other activities building up throughout the day, which makes them feel overwhelmed. At night a way to forget about this stress and decompress may be the usage of technology. In doing this, however, their schoolwork does not usually become completed. Students are not deliberately trying to procrastinate, instead, it is probably a result of stress. An article from Physiology Today says, “Procrastination also involves a degree of self-deception: At some level, procrastinators are aware of their actions and the consequences, but changing their habits requires even greater effort than completing the task in front of them.”
Sleep is a key part of life; almost one-third of life is spent sleeping. The importance of sleep relates to having strong physical, mental and emotional health. Derby High School Health Teacher and Coach Matthew Nicolari talks about how the less sleep one has, the harder it is for them to retain knowledge. If a person with only a few hours of sleep learns the same lesson that a person with lots of sleep learns, he says, the person with more sleep, most of the time, will understand the lesson better. Without sleep, the well being of any person of any age goes down significantly. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, “Children and adolescents who do not get enough sleep have a higher risk for many health problems. Examples include obesity, type 2 diabetes, poor mental health, and injuries. These children are also more likely to have attention and behavior problems, which can lead to poor academic performance in school.” Sleep deprivation can lead to serious affects far worse than not finishing assignments. Sleep is not something that is optional and just needs to be over, it is a necessity. Building strong sleeping habits among other habits of productivity is important because the more serious and difficult education or life becomes, if students have negative habits of sleep or studying, the lasting impacts of sleep deprivation can target them even more heavily.
There are ways to try and combat these distractions, procrastination and have better time management. Many after school activities can go until late at night and prevent students from doing their work. To fix this, students should plan out their time. Make sure they are aware of their assignments, homework and anything they need to do. If students consistently are not able to catch up on assignments because of curricular activities, they may have to take some things off their plate and reevaluate their priorities. Students should have more help and resources available to teach them in school about the importance of sleep, different study methods and ways to contact teachers. Creating healthy routines at night are a great habit, too. Routines can change people’s bodies’ natural rhythms and make them more tired because their body knows it is time to go to sleep at a certain time. Phones, one of the biggest distractions, should have a time limit to them. This way once the limit ends, students know that they should start to do more productive activities. Activities that use up energy and brain power such as exercising and learning in school can use up excess energy, making it easier to naturally fall asleep.
Sleep will always be important. The best thing that people can do for themselves is to become familiar with what works for them and work against distractions and procrastination. Remember, if you can’t sleep well, at least dream that you do!
The Raider Press 