Dear Future President,

There is an everyday problem that no one has yet to solve. The start times for high schoolers is set WAY too early. Teenagers have to wake up at 6:30 a.m. sometimes 6 and are expected to be at school by 7:40 a.m. Now I know that they do this to help prepare high schoolers for their future jobs but many are wavering between even having a future job. The expectation of teenagers going onto a good college is at it’s highest but if teenagers can’t even have a decent sleeping schedule, how are they able to achieve the expectation. Recent studies showed that 87% of teenagers do not get the needed eight to ten hours of sleep every night.

School homework is hard enough because of how much homework is due the next day. Some may not have a problem with it but to those who struggles with the huge amount of stress on finishing homework, they tend to stay up even later into the night worrying about what to do. And sometimes those who can’t finish homework is because they have work, babysitting or school activities. Teachers expects students to finish a mountain of homework by the next day and this is an impossible task even for adults and yet teachers expect that as the least for us students. All of this leads to the main problem that is being ignored in today’s society, teenage sleep deprivation.

With not enough sleep, the brain does not function properly making the human body still in a sleeping state. 15% of teens are getting a full eight and a half hours of sleep each night one study says. Only 15%! This creates a big possibility for sleep disorders to happen to teens such as Restless leg syndrome or even insomnia.Not only can there be the consequences of sleep disorders but also depression. The burden starts to get them and when teens don’t succeed at school, then they start to blame themselves creating a deep impersonation of depression. That is why sleep is an essential when it comes to a high schoolers lifestyle.