Many high school students sleep deprived

Editor’s Note: This column was written by John Bapst Memorial High School students. Their adviser is Lynn Manion.

Parents, do you wake up at 3 a.m. to the clicking of the keyboard, angry because you think your child is chatting with his or her friends online, only to find them furiously writing a paper?

With demanding academic, athletic and extracurricular activities taking place in a school day that starts around 8 a.m., many Maine teens are finding themselves sleep deprived. Family obligations, part-time jobs and social lives contribute to already rigorous schedules, making it hard for teens to get enough shut-eye.

Joel Alex, a senior at John Bapst Memorial High School, is juggling a demanding course load, athletic involvement and community commitments.

“I don’t arrive home until after 7 p.m.,” said Alex. “I have to do all of my homework and study for tests. I hope to get to bed by midnight.”

Alex’s advanced placement biology teacher, William Lopotro, believes that “kids should sleep eight or nine hours at least.” He goes on to say “really serious students try to do the best they can” and may “be up working until 1, 2, or 3 a.m.”

Lopotro asserts a well-known fact: high school students are simply not getting enough sleep. Consequently, students are exhausted during their early morning classes. Some schools have attempted to conquer this problem by creating a rotating schedule. This places each class in a different time period each day, preventing teachers from having the same lethargic students morning after morning.

But no one is digging into the root of the problem – teenagers need more sleep.

What is the solution? Should schools hit the snooze button a few more times, catering to students’ nocturnal needs, or should students reduce their participation in extracurricular activities?

Maine lawmakers may want to consider the ideas of Connecticut and Massachusetts. These states are actively working to pass a bill requiring schools to open no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Unless the hours of the school day are changed, students will be forced to do what they do currently. They’ll be forced to choose between excelling academically, keeping all of their after-school activities, and not getting enough sleep, or lowering their academic standards, reducing the number of post-school activities, and getting more sleep. The consequences of either of these decisions could be detrimental to young people’s health.

Brittany Morrell, a senior at Hampden Academy has opted to continue her hectic schedule. She says, “I usually fall asleep in school. It’s not because I try to stay up late, nor is it solely due to the fact that I’m busy preparing for college and partaking in extracurricular activities. A major reason is because my body simply can’t fall asleep early enough to get enough sleep at night.”

Schools participating in Student Union include Hampden Academy, Brewer High School, John Bapst Memorial High School, Old Town High School, Mount Desert Island Regional High School, Stearns High School in Millinocket, Nokomis Regional High School, Hermon High School, and Schenck High School in East Millinocket.