Waking up at 6:30 AM and sleeping at 12:00 AM, the typical student who attends my local high school sleeps around 7 hours per night. Having recently transitioned from summer vacation back to school, students in my region have slowly began to remember the extracurricular and homework-packed days of high school. Desiring to determine how many hours of sleep the average highschool student in my area gets, I embarked on my quest to interview a group of juniors at my school.
While some may argue that Junior year is a fast paced and exciting year, the common “Junior Myth” is that it is one of the busiest and least enjoyable years seems to stand true, at least among my personal circles. Out of the group of students interviewed, around half of the students answered that they were able to sleep about 6 hours, another third claimed around 7 hours, while the other half answered around 8. Although there were a few students that responded that they were able to get around 10 hours of sleep each night, most interviewed were not even able to come close to ideal 8 hours of sleep per night.
For the students in my area, obtaining around 7 hours of sleep is not an unusual phenomenon, but rather a common occurrence. One student who wished to stay anonymous in an interview stated that, “Despite many strenuous day to day activities, such as after-school clubs, I sleep upwards of 6 hours per day”. While scientists and researchers recommending approximately 8.5 hours of sleep per day for the average teenager, juniors, at the very least, seem to fall far from the targeted number. One student who heard of such studies even went as far as to claim that obtaining 8.5 hours of sleep was a “fanciful” idea that was “utterly unrealistic”.
This article was brought to you to provide a glimpse into high school student life.
