There’s no sound that is more dreadful than the ring of an alarm clock in the morning, especially when you have a stressful day ahead — and you got what felt like minutes of sleep the night before.

I remember when I was in pre-school, I hated nap time. I would never sleep and sometimes even cry because I didn’t want to. Now, I would give anything to take a nice long nap in the middle of the day.

Personally, I have to get up at 5:30 every morning if I want to eat breakfast and get ready to look at least a little decent. If I go to bed around midnight, that means I only get about five hours of sleep every night.

But who am I to complain? I have people telling me that they need to function throughout the week, getting only one or two hours of sleep each night. That’s crazy.

A lot of us do have tons of homework, and that’s one of the things that causes us to not sleep. Students also have things like work, and clubs and sports to worry about. If teachers are going to give that much homework, maybe we should start school a little later?

I find it funny how in today’s society, adults always encourage kids and teenagers to get at least eight hours of sleep. But nearly no student does. And no teacher or adult seems to really care.

As kids get older and go into high school, sleeping time really decreases. I can’t even take naps because if I fall asleep at 4:00 P.M, I’ll wake up at 11:00 P.M. and have nothing done. I think this applies to many people.

“I’d like [school to start later in the morning] for the waking-up-later factor,” said Sadie Schultz (10), “but then school would go too late and we wouldn’t have enough time to do our homework.” 

On the other hand, some students would love for school to start later in the morning.

“Are you kidding me?! I would feel… amazing! I would sign 20 petitions and donate money [for school to start later],” said Valerie Smykalov (10). 

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends that kids should get the recommended eight and a half to nine and a half hours of nightly rest. The CDC cited significant risks that come with lack of sleep, including higher rates of obesity, depression and motor-vehicle accidents among teens, as well as an overall lower quality of life.

“Getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance,” said Anne Wheaton, the lead author and epidemiologist in the CDC’s Division of Population Health. According to the Atlantic, “Early school start times, however, are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep they need.” 

Catching up on sleep over the weekend doesn’t make up for the sleep that you didn’t get throughout the week because your problem solving skills and reaction time still lag behind.

Getting enough sleep is essential for kids and teenagers to grow up to be healthy. Yet with our school system being this way, sadly, I don’t think things will change anytime soon.