The worst part of school isn’t the homework or the tests, but having to wake up so early. The World Population Review finds that the average American adult wakes up around 7:20 a.m.
Most Rider students wake up about an hour earlier each day, and there’s no good reason for it.
School didn’t used to be quite this early, but last year the district decided to move the start for high school 15 minutes earlier to account for the possibility of snow days.
Well, winter came and went without any snow, so students in the district will get Thursday and Monday off around Easter, in addition to Friday that is already off. The extra days are because the district is ahead on state-mandated student minutes for 2023-24.
It would be much better to go to school those days and get 15 more minutes of sleep throughout the year.
Studies have shown that on average adolescents need more sleep than adults need, and yet they’re waking up an hour before the average adult.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average teenager needs a minimum of 8-10 hours a day, whereas an adult needs seven or more hours.
However the Better Health Channel reports that the majority of adolescents are only getting roughly 6.5-7.5 hours of sleep each night.
Teenagers already have a lot to deal with. If one has AP classes, electives or a job, they might not be getting to sleep until late.
Fifteen extra minutes isn’t going to fix the nationwide teenage sleep deprivation issue, but every minute counts. While those couple of minutes might seem quite inconsequential, sleep debt is constantly building, and they still have an impact.
Having any extra days off school to rest is always nice. But these extra days are just a couple weeks after spring break, when many people already feel more rested and rejuvenated.
If we were to trade 15 extra minutes of sleep for two bonus days off, which is still a bad trade, it would be more beneficial to have days much earlier or later when the fatigue of school is fresher.
The past couple of years we’ve seen a good bit of snow, but that’s far from the norm in this part of the country. Usually snow is a rare occurrence in Texas, much less snow harsh enough to warrant a snow day.
While it is always good to be prepared and have systems in place for the worst, it’s still a sore trade-off for an unlikely, what-if scenario.
