Waking up at an ungodly hour, rushing to school half asleep. Participating in an extra curricular, and then rushing home to finish hours worth of homework. This is the continuous cycle for most high school students at Saint Viator. Sleep is a precious thing that contributes to growth and development. The trouble is how kids today have excessive amounts of homework and are unable to get the recommended quantity of necessary sleeping hours.

Doctors have proven that teenagers require around 8-10 hours of sleep per night for a healthy development. A poll taken by 50 Saint Viator students show that only 24% got the recommended sleeping hours. This causes dropping grades and suffering GPAs. There is a way this downward spiral can be prevented; by having teachers assign less to no homework.

Sophomore Dominic Yonkus said, “The amount of homework in a given week can pile up over time, and this leads to having to stay up late nights to get it all done.” Dominic is challenged by the struggle that a majority of students here face, in choosing finishing their homework over getting cherished sleep.

Another Lion, Tara Valentino, suffers from a lack of sleep because she must handle homework, along with her passion for sports. She said, “My sports and after school activities already have me getting home around 8:00pm, and adding 3-4 or more hours of homework on average gives me about 4 hours of sleep.” Saint Viator is failing this student because of homework. Without this unnecessary drawback, she would be getting to bed earlier and sleeping a recommended amount.

During their teenage years, students are hardwired to stay up later and wake up later. This is one of the main causes for not being able to fall asleep during the night. Even though schools won’t be able to change the school start to a later time, teachers can control how much homework they give to their students. Teachers must realize how consequential it is to assign so much excessive homework to their students. In the end, students may be getting A’s on homework assignments, but end up  failing at life.