San Luis Obispo High School students are exhausted. Many students at our school are active participants in sports, clubs, Associated Student Body, and other extracurricular activities; some even have jobs. This makes for a very busy schedule, especially when combined with homework, and getting up early every day. One solution to this problem could be to do what the American Academy of Pediatricians is suggesting and make the school day start and end an hour later. Expressions went out and talked to students about their views on sleeping during high school, or lack thereof.

“Students on average definitely do not get enough sleep. Part of the reason is students are not educated on how much   sleep they should actually be getting on a nightly basis which is between eight and nine hours and 15 minutes each night,” said Health teacher Dan Monroe. The majority of students do not get a sufficient amount of sleep each night.

When asked if she gets enough sleep, senior Mara Basich-Pease said, “no.” She has a packed schedule filled with Cheerleading, club soccer, FFA Leadership, and Harvard Model Congress, as well as AP classes. Although she does believe students don’t get enough sleep.” When asked if she would like to change the schedule to make it start and end later, she said “I like to sleep in the morning but sports would start so much later and end so much later so I guess not, maybe a half hour.”

ASB President John-O Roberts also agreed that students do not get enough sleep. In addition to ASB, he is a participant in Youth and Government, and is enrolled in AP classes, keeping him very busy. When asked if he would prefer to change the schedule, he said, “that would be difficult considering CIF regulations for sports, but from an academic standpoint, yes.”