by Anthony Ramirez ’16
Surprise, surprise: Based on an anonymous poll surveying over 160 randomly selected Saint Ignatius students, it was discovered that most students do not get the doctor-recommended eight to nine hours of sleep a night.
Although respondees greatly varied in the number of honors and AP classes each took, the results for students of all workloads were similar.
During an average school week at Saint Ignatius, about sixty percent of students surveyed receive less than six hours of sleep each day. Generally, most students attempt to make up for their lost hours on the weekends, with nearly fifty percent of the students surveyed sleeping more than nine hours each Saturday and Sunday. A shift was shown during finals and midterms, however, with the percent of students that get less than six hours of sleep slightly decreasing to fifty percent.
As for the cause of this lack of sleep, an overwhelming seventy-two percent of respondents agreed that homework is a key factor in how much sleep they are able to get. Sixty-seven percent of students felt that if they had less homework they would be able to get more sleep, but only fifty-four percent of students said that the amount of sleep they receive actually affects their academic performance.With that said, about sixty percent of students also play sports or keep a mobile device near them while they sleep, which many agreed also greatly contributed to their lack of sleep.
On what they think could solve this problem, sixty-six percent of students surveyed wanted Saint Ignatius to take action to help stop this issue. Most agreed that the problem could be solved by reducing homework, or by the less popular option: starting the school day later.
While the students were evenly split in their opinions on a later start to the school day, a slight majority of students agreed that they would not want to start the day later if the school day were to be longer.
Bottom line: While it seems the common problem among students is not getting enough sleep each night, it’s not always too much homework that keeps them from getting their eight to nine hours. Sometimes the students themselves, and their devices, are at fault.
