Warning!!!! There is a new epidemic sweeping our nation and it’s targeting your children. Besides all the health problems (both mental and physical) that your children face in 2017, like obesity and drugs in public schools, there is a whole other health issue you need to worry about. Sleep deprivation.
Adults are constantly regulating how much TV we are watching, if we are doing our homework, or if we are hanging out with the “right” crowd but have you ever stopped to consider if we teenagers are getting enough sleep? Is your child getting at least 8-10 hours of sleep a night? Most likely, the answer is no. According to the National Sleep Foundation, this can be detrimental to your child’s health. Lack of sleep in teens cause poor test scores, acne-prone skin, wild and erratic behavior, and over-eating. Uh oh (it’s starting to sound like I’m not getting enough sleep).
This leads me to the whole reason for this article. The reason teenagers aren’t sleeping enough is because school starts at the crack of dawn in Miami-Dade County! It’s taking away my nappy time, and I don’t know about you, but I need all the beauty sleep I can get. In the last three years, my high school dropped from an A school to a D school. Maybe the superintendent should send out a tweet about later school times? A study conducted in Kansas show that pushing back the bell by just an hour significantly improved students’ performance. My school starts at 7:20am so many of my friends and I are zombies for the first period of the day, or at least the first few (depending on who you ask). That doesn’t stop me from looking amazing, but it does put a damper on my ability to learn. In the mornings I slide into my seat just as the bell rings.
But it’s not only the students who need their sleep, it’s our teachers too. On top of being grossly underpaid, they need to be in their classrooms by 6:00 am. I don’t think I have ever woken up before 6:30 am, so for that, I salute them. After barely sleeping, they have to handle sleep-deprived teenagers. No easy feat. Not to mention our poor parents! I know what a handful I can be in the morning without coffee, and I’m considered a good daughter, or at least I hope I am… In conclusion, what I am trying to say is that more sleep for teens means more sleep for parents. More sleep for parents equals increased job productivity. Increased productivity equals a better economy. A better economy equals happier citizens. Happier citizens means no fighting, and no fighting equals world peace. Boom! A 14-year-old just solved a problem that no leader before us has been able to accomplish. Pushing school to start at 9:30am just accomplished world peace. You’re welcome Trump.
