With some students in multiple after school activities, jobs, and homework, sleep may not always be a priority.
The United States, as a nation, appears to be becoming more and more sleep deprived, according to National Sleep Foundation. Some people turn to naps to make up for the time missed sleeping.
“Most teenagers need 9-10 hours of sleep and most of them aren’t getting that much,” Dr. Paula Schweitzer, director of research at St. Luke’s Hospital’s sleep lab, said.
Schweitzer said naps can be beneficial for students if they are used to supplement sleep.
The National Sleep Foundation also reports a short nap of 20-30 minutes can help to improve mood, alertness and performance.
“The best thing to do would be to get enough sleep at night, but we all know with school schedules, that might be difficult,” Schweitzer said.
Schweitzer said as kids grow older their biological clock changes to where they want to wake up later and stay up later and that’s why some districts have middle school start before high school.
Not only do naps help with being more awake, they help with learning.
Ms. Vicki Kemp, gifted education specialist, said she has read that your brain compartmentalizes when you’re asleep. When you are taught information, the best time to learn it is through sleep.
“Think about this: cats nap around 20 hours a day and they have nine lives,” Kemp said.
Getting enough sleep on a regular basis is the best way to stay alert, but when fatigue sets in, a quick nap would be beneficial, according to National Sleep Foundation.
“I usually take a nap about an hour after school till like 7 at night,” Mackenzie Donovan, junior, said.
Donovan said she has created a habit of sleeping after school so her body has adjusted to the sleep, but in the beginning she wouldn’t be able to sleep until late at night.
Habitual napping is when a person takes a nap at the same time each day, according to National Sleep Foundation. This is most common in young children or some adults take a short daily nap after lunch.
“If I lay down for a little bit then when I wake up I’m more awake to do my homework and other stuff,” Donovan said.
Now, not every student has the amount of time Donovan has to nap, but anyone could always make some amount of time to get a few zzz’s in.
“I think that everyone should take a nap after school; it really helps me,” Donovan said.
Not only does it help Donovan, but it also helps fellow junior, Romina Shayesteh.
“I get more energized so I can stay up longer to finish all my homework,” Shayesteh said.
Shayesteh also tries to take a nap every day after school, around two- three hours each time.
“I go into a real deep sleep; sometimes I wake up and I don’t know what time it is,” Shayesteh said.
She said sometimes she’ll be up really later not being able to fall asleep because of the naps she takes.
Both students agree when they said all students should take naps. It benefitted them and believe it would benefit all the students at MHS.
