I ask this because many times when I taught in the classroom I caught students complaining about being sleepy and dosing off, and most mornings I notice students arriving to school dragging their feet, half asleep. When I asked the girls what time they went to bed the previous night, they tell me 1:00 AM or 2:00 AM, and occasionally 3:00 AM! When I ask them why so late, they tell me that they were surfing the Internet or instant messaging their friends on-line. It has never been because of homework.
Research shows that teenagers (and most adults) need 8 to 9 hours of sleep every night. Less than seven hours negatively impacts students’ success in school. Bishop Conaty-Loretto starts at 8:10 AM (and 7:15 AM for Zero Period classes). That means to get to school on time most students have to get up at least 6:00 AM or 6:30 AM. (If students have to take the bus, they have to get up much earlier.) If student had gone to bed well after midnight, they have had no more than six hours of sleep.
How can parents help their teenagers get enough sleep? Monitor their use of the computer and get them to go to bed by 10:00 PM.
MSNBC ran an article yesterday on this topic. Check it out at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20476346/.
Here’s an article from the Boston Globe about the importance of teen sleep: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2005/06/21/teenagers_need_help_to_form_better_sleep_habits/.
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