By Jessica Shine
Today’s teenagers face overwhelming amounts of stress. From everyday studying, to athletic activities, to college prep and beyond, it is nearly impossible for students to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle. With the school days starting earlier and homework loads increasing how can any student be expected to function the next day?
Having personally suffered through the school day on minimum sleep, I can tell you that being a ‘functioning student’ is extremely difficult. This would mean that you don’t fall asleep during class, you can stay focused on the task in front of you, and most importantly retain the information being taught to you.
The minimum hours of sleep a high school student should be getting is about eight to ten hours according to the National Sleep Foundation. Do most students get that much sleep? Definitely not. With increasing loads of homework and extracurricular activities it is almost impossible to do it all and still have time for yourself.
The average amount of homework given in public schools was found to be 3.5 hours taken by a poll by the LA Times. After sitting in school for six hours, you get to come home and do the same thing for 3 and a half more hours! On top of homework, school clubs and sports are also becoming a necessity for students to get ahead in the college process. Work for students does not end when the bell dismisses them from the school day.
In a small study I recently conducted with eight of my friends, they were all involved in an average of seven different after school activities. The average amount of sleep they get on a school night is six hours, two hours less than what the essential amount is for teens. And yet, they are all expected to show up to school the next day and do it all over again.
The effects of these stressors do not go unnoticed. It is becoming more common for high school aged teenagers to report high levels of stress and in some cases, depression due to the stress and expectations from school. USA Today reported that there are more kids now than ever before feeling anxious and depressed. In fact, they reported that 29% of students in high school have reported to have felt sad or hopeless almost every day for a period of two weeks or longer.
While some may think that 29% is a somewhat low number considering how many other children there are in schools, the report only focused on the students exclusively feeling “sad or hopeless”. It did not dive into the plethora of other students going through similar struggles, or even students that did not feel comfortable enough to report their mental status. However, the report did identify the rising number of suicide attempts in kids aged 13 to 17.
While it may be difficult to trace back all of the damage to school related stress, it is likely that it plays a major role. Stress can make students more irritable, it can worsen grades, and can decrease quality of sleep that is vital for this age group. This leads to the question: how can students manage their stress better?
No one has the same physiological capacity for stress so there is no one end all answer to that question. However, there are ways that students can lead a more balanced lifestyle to manage their stress.
As with all things, good things come in small amounts; too much of anything can be harmful. While extracurricular activities provide an outlet for stress, they can also be the things causing it according to The Atlantic. Sports can be a major cause of stress for some students while music or clubs can be the reasons for other students. Personally being involved in a school sport and a club sport all year, six days a week, causes some major stress within my life.
With most tasks in life, expectations are high and people are counting on you to be your best. That on top of maintaining good grades and making sure to have downtime to yourself to have some sanity can be a lot to handle. Doing things in moderation to the best of your ability will definitely ease some stress. However, it’s a different story when you are inside school walls.
The normal high school environment provides plenty of its own stressors as previously mentioned. Keeping that stress under control with new surprises popping up every day can be difficult. While students are responsible for themselves, teachers and other school staff members can easily be of help.
For starters, assigning less homework to do every night can help relieve some stress. Understandably, homework is set in place to make sure that students understand that days lesson. It also provides some competition and motivation among students to perform well. But once again, moderation is key.
In keeping with the topic of homework, not assigning any on the weekends would be another helpful solution. Granted there are some instances where it needs to be assigned but the weekends are meant to be a break from school, not a time to do more of it.
As stated before, the amount of sleep students get affects their levels of stress the next day. While this may seem like a big jump, starting the school day later would probably reduce the amount of students that fall asleep in class. While I can’t prove this for sure, this solution could also make for less aggravated teachers as well.
Finally, although this may be the most difficult solution to reduce stress, putting down your technology can be an incredible stress reliever. I love my phone just as much as the next person but, putting it away and focusing on what I need to get done is often when I personally do my best work.
As with the saying “all roads lead to Rome”, it seems to be that all stress leads to school or school related activities. In order to be a ‘functioning student’ and maintain or exceed everything expected from them, there has to be some give somewhere in the system.
