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Essential "Zzzzz"

"Ms. Wu, please sleep on your own time and not in my class!"

With much strength, I force my heavy eyelids open to see my Japanese teacher glaring sternly at me, hands on her hips and brows knitted in a frown. I suddenly realize that I also have thirty-one pairs of eyes on me in silent laughter. Flushing a deep crimson, I mumble an apology and try to conceal my embarrassment by hiding behind my hair. Unfortunately, fate decides that it rather likes chagrining me.

"No, Ms.Wu."

My teacher raps her knuckles on my desk for emphasis. I flinch under her glare, feeling like a child who has been caught stealing a cookie before supper.

"This is the fourth time you've fallen asleep. I will not allow such a behavior to go unpunished. Go down to the principal's office right now!"

Before I can even stutter out a protest, I find myself kicked out of the classroom with a farewell glare followed by cruel laughter. Oh, and don't forget the gifts of humiliation. 'It's not fair,' I think angrily as I drag my weary body down the hall. 'It's not MY fault I'm so dead tired.'

Now, I'm not trying to find an excuse for my little nap - ok, maybe I am, but there's a perfectly valid reason for it. My alarm clock does its fire alarm impersonation at 5 a.m. every morning. After a cold shower and a few bites of Kellogg's waffles, I'm whisked into my zero-period Jazz Band. Then I spend nearly eight hours in school digesting every little fact taught by my information-inexhaustible teachers. Finally, when the bell rings, I sprint onto the court for tennis practice. But wait. There's more. Every Mondays and Wednesdays, I tutor math. I don't mean to complain - the kids are fun to be around - but the teaching can be so time consuming!

When the day's demands are met, I can practically hear my muscles cursing at me and threatening to go on strike. But no matter how tempting the bed looks, I always have a mountain of homework left. Sighing, I tackle the miniature Mount Everest with exhaustion.

After my hands grow numb from four hours of writing and my eyes turn blood-shot, my clock gleefully reminds me that it's 1 a.m. With every part of my body stiff and aching, I collapse onto bed, looking somewhat like Dracula's wife. And then with the special ability I've developed from my hectic schedule, I fall asleep in three seconds flat. So, exactly how many hours of sleep do I get? Let's see.

I'm dead to the world at 1 a.m. and rise like a zombie at 5. My overused brain tells me I receive four hours of rest. Yep, and sleep experts say that teenagers need at least 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep each night. Once again, my brilliant mathematics skills come to the rescue: Does 4 equal 8.5? I really, REALLY don't think so.

"Not fair, not fair," I mutter furiously, and share my wrath with the ground by giving it a good, hard stomp. The gray tiled floor simply stares back at me, obviously unconcerned by the fact that I'm a growing teenager with a hectic schedule and need REST! Oh no, of course it doesn't care. After all, four hours of sleep is ONLY about half of the required 8.5 hours; I certainly won't die from exhaustion or experience any body-ailing conditions. But, hey, I'm not the only one grumbling.

I've met several other students who stagger around campus with heavy bags drooping from their eyes, despite the desperate amounts of make-up they use. One girl even complained to me, "I'm going to be grounded forever! I have a D in chemistry!"

When I politely asked her why, she admitted wearily, "I'm just so tired that it's hard to pay attention, you know? I really wish I could take a nap or something."

I sympathized quite well with her, and together we brooded over the unfairness of our grueling lives. Of course, all my grousing has led me to one solution: a change in the school schedule.

Currently, my classes start at 7:30 and ends at 2:30. I think tweaking the times even the slightest would make a big difference for me as well as other sleep-deprived students. For example, if school were to begin from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. instead, we'd all have an extra thirty minutes of rest. And trust me, thirty minutes can definitely boost our energy levels. Unfortunately, my school is adamant on sticking to the current schedule; I suppose eliminating the problem of lack of sleep and allowing students to be more alert during class isn't a very important.

As an alternative solution, I tried to lighten my own agenda by dropping a few extracurricular activities. The plan had seemed like a fine one until I discovered that I couldn't bear having any of them taken away from me.

Alas, I continue to live each day like the walking dead and ceaselessly set records for sleeping during lectures. But my message is as clear as daylight: teenagers with busy schedules deserve to get enough rest. Not only will they feel more energetic (for me, in this case, look and feel less like a zombie), but they can avoid incidents such as falling asleep in class (and thus avoiding a trip to the principal's office). So for all those teens out there, take a lesson from someone who has experienced the terrible results of fatigue: Getting enough sleeping is an essential! Try to loosen your schedule and catch a few winks if possible. Don't end up with a weary mind and body like yours truly!

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