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The Student News Site of Rock Bridge High School

Bearing News

The Student News Site of Rock Bridge High School

Bearing News

Instead of complaining, just stop sleeping

Instead+of+complaining%2C+just+stop+sleeping

There is only so much usable time in a day, meaning there’s only so many opportunities one day can offer before it comes to an end. As a result, time for completing work is short, and with so many tasks to do, such as AP projects and after school practice every day, it’s stressful. But never fear. There’s an easy solution into finding time to fit school work, chores and extra-curricular activities into everyday: don’t sleep.
Sleep wastes one-third of every day. Someone closing their eyes for eight hours and dreaming unrealistic thoughts and events isn’t productive nor does it recharge energy. No one is ever satisfied or magically “not tired” because they got their full dose of sleep. If anything, sleep causes more stress on people because of how pointless it is.
It’s just useless to “hit the hay” when there’s no glorious result. No A, no trophy, no “good job” or “well done.” It’s just an off switch to someone who could do more important things.
Imagine all the papers that could get written during the night when there aren’t as many distractions. Or how much time there would be to memorize those vocabulary words for that quiz next week. Without sleep, there’d be no more excuses about not acing a test, since there’d be more than enough time to prepare for it.
Plus, it would give more time to those who have important activities during the day, such as sports or jobs. With everyday practices, it can be hard for athletes to finish schoolwork if their bedtime is 10 p.m. sharp. But if athletes never went to bed, they can go to practice and complete all their homework easily. If people with jobs didn’t crawl under the covers, then they could have more time to work and make even more money.
Now there is a concern for tiredness, but that’s what caffeine is for. Instead of sleeping, people should drink 25 cups of coffee a day. For people who don’t appreciate the bitter taste, Monster and Five-Hour Energy were made for a reason. Drinking doesn’t take up as much time and will improve efficiency and attention spans in the classroom more than sleep will. Caffeine will give students even more energy than seven hours of shut-eye. It is caffeine, not sleeping, that will make teens more energized and ready for anything.
In fact, we should just get rid of beds altogether. They do nothing but take up space that could be used for more important things such as bookshelves for textbooks and desks for doing homework. They provide a distraction to learning by offering an excuse from work. Beds create problems and distractions that high school students can’t afford to have.
In the long run, sleep isn’t critical. Slumber doesn’t graduate with a high school diploma. Rest doesn’t get college scholarships. Sweet dreams do nothing but distract students from their schooling. Without sleep, students would have better grades and higher test scores.
This marks the end of visions of dancing sugar-plums in children’s heads. It’s time for 24 hour days where people can have meaningful experiences all 24 hours. It’s time to throw that obnoxious alarm clock out the window. It’s time to put sleep to bed.

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  • L

    Lev KnoblockNov 17, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    Um
    May I just mention every existing study on lack of sleep causing major problems for cognition, memory, and neuroplasticity. On top of that, it slows down processing speed. In fact, it does affect your chances of graduating with a high school diploma – lack of sleep has a very strong correlation with significantly lower grades. It increases risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. It interferes with growth hormones and makes emotions harder to regulate. In general, not sleeping is just plain bad…
    I would love to be able to skip sleep. I would actually be able to catch up in my work for once. But simply caffeinating myself or drinking energy drinks doesn’t do enough for that to be reasonable. Yes, they make you feel awake, but they do nothing to keep your brain working long term – The longer you wait before sleeping and the more caffeine you use to keep yourself awake during that time, the harder you crash at the end.
    And that is without even mentioning the possibility of dependence, especially with having that much caffeine every day…

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