IB Tired!

When was the last time that you slept at 10pm on a school night? Studies show that students and teachers need about 9 hours of sleep to properly function. However, the BSGE community knows that this statistic is ridiculous and doesn’t apply to the school.
Sleep not only plays an important factor in how engaged and focused a student is, but also affects the quality of their work. When asked about how much sleep high school kids need compared to how much they get, BSGE students had different responses. Ricardo Aguayo ’13 believes that students should be getting seven hours of sleep. He stated, “Seven hours is the minimum amount of sleep I need because then I’m more aware and I can easily understand what I’m learning.” Sleep-deprivation makes it harder for students to understand what is being taught and for them thoroughly complete their work and be dedicated to class. Other students thought the minimum amount of sleep students need was much less. Lenny Gonzalez’14 stated “I think five hours of sleep is sufficient. If I sleep more than 6 or 7 hours, I wake up more tired but five is perfect because then I’m more awake.” The reason that students seem to sleep less, especially in BSGE, is because of the overwhelming amount of work and time management skills. It’s very hard to allocate time to different tasks, especially in sophomore, junior and senior year. There are a plethora of repsonsibilities and tasks that BSGE students must complete such as completeing college applications, studying and taking the SATs/SAT IIs, doing the Personal Project and Extended Essay and more. Even during the weekend, students who are able to catch up on sleep end up falling back in to the same cycle. Sleeping late on the weekends ends up also affected one’s sleeping schedule, whether they like it or not.
Getting a substantial amount of sleep is not only necessary for students but also for teachers. Teachers, the very heart and core of the class, must be well-rested in order to effectively teach and have their class be engaging. It tends to be obvious when a teacher is not well-rested because it affects the atmosphere and mood of the class. As it may be obvious that students blame sleep deprivation on procrastination and the incredulous work-load, teachers have other reasons.  Most teachers in this school get approximately 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep. Ms. Africano and Mr. Giraldo, BSGE’s Spanish teachers both state that this is the amount of sleep they normally get, sometimes what they get on a good day. Mr. Giraldo explained that he has many things to do when he is home such as take care of his kids, cook, maintain a social life, and more. He does as much as he can at school, but continues to work at home. Ms. Africano expanded by commenting that she must get to school early to set up and make sure her classroom and lesson plans are up-to-date. It seems like for both students and teachers the work does not remain in school, but continues into the late hours of the day.
Sleep deprivation is a horrible condition that almost everyone in BSGE endures daily. It’s hard to focus, difficult to complete your thoug……………………………..