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  • Aujuli Irvin

The Importance of Sleep for Success in School

In today’s article, we will be talking about sleep, which seems a bit boring, but is interesting and necessary to learn to help you function as a student!




Have you ever gone to school sleep-deprived; feeling sluggish and unable to learn? Have you then fallen asleep accidentally in class? You’re not alone! Around one-quarter of high school students fall asleep in school. 14% do not even get to school on time because of oversleeping! It is most likely because 73% of high school students do not regularly get enough sleep to function properly. This is a huge problem because sleeping improves memory and focus in addition to regulating all of our different body systems. Not enough sleep can make us distracted in class and decrease our ability to learn.


Let’s examine sleep more deeply. During REM sleep, memory and learning are consolidated in teens. (REM is a sleep stage after deep sleep). However, if teens do not get enough sleep/time to reach the REM phase, they won’t retain much that they’ve learned. Sleep is a way to ensure you remember everything you have learned in a day. Sleep also prioritizes memories to make sure you are remembering the most important things clearly, which would aid you in studying for an exam if you’re getting enough REM and deep sleep.

So how much sleep do we need? High school adolescents need around 8-10 hours of sleep each day. That may seem like a lot or at least more than you’re used to, but we need to receive that rest so we can be healthy and ready to learn for school. At the very least, you should sleep that much to feel better and more energetic. After all, who likes to feel like a log walking around at school? So next time you find yourself up past 10:30 p.m. on a school night, turn off the lights and try to relax. Your body will feel so much better.


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Editor's note: If you're having trouble sleeping, I recommend getting s Fitbit. Getting a Fitbit helped me view my sleeping patterns thus I knew what I had to fix.


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