Preschoolers have the luxury of half an hour to an hour of time to nap during the school day. Yet, pre-schoolers are the ones with the least amount of work and responsibilities.
High school students are prone to falling asleep in class. According to a poll posted on the @lrhsnews account, 72% of students who responded have already fallen asleep this school year.
Some students have to do homework, work late hours, and do chores at home. With all of these responsibilities it is very hard for students to get a proper amount of sleep at night.
“Nap time would be beneficial for all highschool students because we’re all working from 7:00 AM to late in the evening because of homework, and a break is needed.” said, Diya Patel, senior,
If high school students were given the opportunity to have a designated time in the day where they could rest for 30 minutes, then productivity could skyrocket. According to napping and teenage learning study, there is a positive relationship between napping during the day and having a stronger cognitive performance.
The study shows that a midday nap can help process information learned during the day and increase attention span. Students often become tired midday after being overloaded with information.
Napping during school will also help prevent the dreadful after school naps. Students often fall asleep after school which wastes their free-time in the evening. If students were given the chance to relax before it would lower the need to sleep after school.
How it would work at Leesville Road High School
Based on a separate poll posted on the @lrhsnews account, a whopping 90% of students voted that they would like a nap-time during the school day.
The schedule at Leesville Road High School is jam-packed, with only seven minute passing periods and a thirty-four minute lunch break. It’s hard to see where the school could add in a 30 minute break.
Lunch can’t be considered a possibility for a nap-time either, as students need to use this time to eat. So replacing lunch isn’t an option.
The only way to fit in a nap-time would be to lengthen the school day, but no student would want to stay later in the day, so school would have to start earlier. Seeing as many students arrive earlier than the regular start time at 7:25 A.M. anyways, this isn’t an outlandish idea. Most students are either wandering the hallways and cafeteria or sitting in the student parking lot by 7:00 A.M. Starting school twenty-five minutes earlier won’t disturb many students and will allow for a break midday.
While some may argue that having to go to school earlier, means teenagers would lose extra sleep at night, it’s proven that napping midday can increase the quality of sleep at night according to the Napping and Teenage Learning study. While students would have to wake up earlier they are still making it up during the day as well as getting other benefits of midday napping.
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