As teenagers, we are suffering from sleep derivation. Sleep deprivation causes huge amount of problems like lack of attention in classes, moodiness, temper tantrums, grogginess when waking up, not wanting to get out of bed, and wanting to take naps. That’s what most of Abraham Lincoln students go through during class, and don’t think teachers don’t realize it.

The average Abraham Lincoln High School student sleeps for seven hours and forty minutes. Study shows that this is not enough. “Teenagers need a total of at least eight and a half hours to nine hours and thirty minutes of sleep daily to feel energized and balanced,” says the school nurse. When you lack sleep during the weekdays you either sleep around ten hours or even the whole day during the weekends. It isn’t the best way to get back on track with your sleep because you’re basically catching up with the amount of sleep you need. You see a lot of Abraham Lincoln students drink so much energy drinks with caffeine in it because it keeps them awake and boosts their energy for a while. Once they’re feeling sleepy again they drink another one to keep them awake and going.

The reason why Abraham Lincoln High School students don’t sleep enough is because of too much sports making you feel tired, too much homework, playing too many video games, spending too much time online chatting with friends or on MySpace, talking on the phone, parents or relatives coming home from work and disturbing people living in the house, sharing rooms with a night owl… the list goes on but these are the main problems affecting students.

If you don’t know if you’re sleep deprived, here’s how you can tell. When you wake up do you whine and moan or even scream at the person that’s waking you up? Do you wobble around the house once you get out of bed? Sit or stand in one spot and not move for a couple of minutes? If you experience these symptoms, then you need more sleep. Studies shows that if driving to school and if you’re sleep deprived, there is a higher risk that you can get into a car accident.

When I was a freshman I had early schedule because I thought it would be great to get out at two-thirty and be able to hang out with friends and go places but I was wrong. Sure it’s nice to get out early and hang out with friends once in a while, but by the time I got out of school I was already tired and sleepy. Almost everyday I would go home and take a nap because I was really that tired. By the time I woke up it was around six or seven and it’s time to eat dinner and do homework and other stuff. After all that, I’m still not tired and it’s around eleven o’clock. I’m still up watching television because I couldn’t sleep and when I do get sleepy and actually turn off the television, it’s around twelve o’clock and I have to get up around six to take the bus.

During my first two weeks of school as a sophomore, I had late schedule and I was really happy because finally I got to sleep in an hour more, but yet I got home a lot later. Even though one more hour of sleep seems small, it’s really all you need to feel good in the morning and alert in school. When I got to school at eight-thirty, I felt happy, awake and had a lot of energy because of that one hour of extra sleep. After those two weeks, I changed my schedule to full. So far I’m doing pretty good, but it can take a toll on me once in a while so I go home to take a one hour nap and do my homework.