Everyone needs sleep to survive. Every night, teenagers get 7-7.5 hours of sleep when they are supposed to be getting 9-9.5 hours of sleep. This shocking but truthful statistic awakened our senses and made us realize the epidemic that is plaguing high schoolers: the lack of sleep. The importance of getting sufficient rest each night aligns with our impact area which is health and wellness. We know that sleep affects our physical, mental, spiritual, metal, emotional, and environmental health. We need sleep in order to not only be healthy, but also to feel acutely awake and well. Sleep is important because it affects our ability to perform well in school, which is crucial to our eventual success in the future.
We recognized that the lack of sleep is a problem by talking to our fellow classmates and reading articles in the LA Times. Teenagers are constantly being burdened by the daily stresses of high school life such as homework. This prevents many from obtaining the minimum amount of sleep needed for optimum performance the next day, sending us into a vicious downward cycle of chronic sleep deprivation. We observed that not being able to get enough sleep is the number one complaint reiterated by high schoolers today. In addition, an LA Times article that came out in 2017 highlighted the fact that not enough is being done about this striking problem. While trying to develop ways to solve this problem, we realized that practically nothing has been done to combat it-- especially at the high school level. However, we have noted that Project Night Night has been providing homeless children with care packages to help them fall asleep at night. Because not enough empowering projects like these have arisen, we are working our hardest to come up with ways to help high schoolers get enough sleep through our tips, preventative action to decrease procrastination, stress relief workshops, relaxation techniques, and advocative education.
Sleep has become incredibly important to each of our club members. We all recognize the need to attain at least 9 hours of sleep every night. Here are some reasons they cited early on in the year as to why sleep is important to them: