There are many things going on in the life of a high school student. Schedules are crammed with hours worth of homework, chores, sports and other extracurricular activities.  With all of this expected out of them to participate in, there’s not much time for sleep.  In fact, a high school student with a bedtime of one in the morning is not unusual.  School starts at 8:15 in the morning; the time it takes for a student to get ready, then the time it take for them to get to school has effect on what time they wake up.  If a student gets ready in 30 minutes, and lives 20 minutes away from school, they’d have to get up at 7:15 in the morning in order to make it to school on time.  If they went to bed at one, that’s only seven hours and 15 minutes of sleep.  Teenagers need eight to 10 hours of sleep a night.  If we dedicated one hour of rest during school, that would make up for students’ lacking in sleep. 

 A time to rest and catch up on sleep would make daily high school routine go more smoothly and efficiently.

 One way, extra sleep can make school a better place is decrease in entropy.  Students who are tired tend to act out verbally and physically towards others.  This can cause fights that place more stress on everyone else, especially faculty who have to terminate the fight.  Sleepy students, due to lack of alertness can unintentionally inflict harm on students and valuable equipment with educational purposes.  If someone who can’t keep their eyes open, they won’t be able to see where they’re going which increases their risk of running into people, causing injuries, and break hundreds of dollars worth of technology.  Just imagine what sorts of catastrophe lack of sleep can catalyze in a lab experiment.  One more hour of sleep would be enough to keep students aware of their surroundings and in a happier disposition.  As a result student, faculty, and commodities would be safer.

Another reason we should have an hour of rest during school is because students will improve academically.  Lack of sleep also impairs concentration, reasoning, and problem solving.  Students who have been sitting in a desk for long periods of time and are fatigued are not likely to retain information in a classroom.  Exhaustion will impede any student from doing well on tests that affect their transcript. With resting time, students will have the cognitive faculties to do well on tests and get better grades that affect how the school and staff look to the Texas Board of Education. 

One more reason is lack has a long term effect on students too.  Over time, sleep deprivation can cause heart diseases, stroke, and diabetes.  One hour of sleep does not determine whether or not one attains these conditions, but all that stress from a fast paced high school routine is the nascent lifestyle to a perpetuating schedule of many hours of working and few hours of sleep, as an adult.  If the students get into a habit of resting on hour during the day, their overall health and well being will improve vastly.  What good will educating a student be if they don’t live to use their skills because of stress?

Some might say that activity period should be considered our resting time.  But I don’t consider listening to KRAD or completing schoolwork resting time.  There’s nothing wrong with either of the two but I don’t ever feel refreshed after activity period, and I’m sure no one else does either.   It’s just another 15 minutes of sitting in a desk and working.

We could have it right after lunch, when students dive into the deepest fatigue.  School would have to go longer but we could cut passing period and activity periods so that the day doesn’t go on for so long.  Students would be suggested to bring their own pillows.  It sounds juvenile but we’re all young at heart, and you can’t be too old for a nap.  Other cultures add a nap into their schedule like the French and the Mexican, both very happy countries with high life expectancies.  If students were allowed to put school inhibitions aside for one hour, they would not only have a more pleasant school experience, but a more pleasant lifestyle.