Heads down on desks, blank stares at the ticking hand of the clock, gaping yawns, and rapid blinking to regain focus are not particularly unusual behaviors in a high school classroom. 

Most teenagers, often faced with hours of homework, extracurricular activities, home responsibilities, and a myriad of digital distractions don’t get the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep. In fact, according to the CDC’s 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Summary Report, only 28 percent of high school students get at least eight hours of sleep. 

In 2019, California adopted a bill that required high schools to start their day no earlier than 8:30 a.m. in efforts to promote well-being and combat the teenage sleep crisis.
Nonetheless, a lot of high school students are still significantly sleep deprived.

An anonymous senior wakes up at 6 a.m. and her head doesn’t touch a pillow until after midnight, sometimes even 3 a.m..

Because she lives far from school, she has to wake up early to ride the school bus or get a ride from her sister. Then, her bedtime gets pushed back by home and work responsibilities and distractions. 

“Sometimes I have work after school so I can’t go to bed until later and then I have other stuff like chores,” she says. “I have to prepare for the next day. And sometimes I get distracted on my phone or on my iPad or just going online.” 

The senior says that it is easy to get stuck in a cycle where poor sleep leads to under-performance in academics, and attempting to catch up on work contributes to poor sleep.

“Sometimes, [in class], I’m tired, so I don’t get any work done,” she says. “And so I have to do it when I get home and I lose out on more sleep.”

She finds herself having to reread paragraphs or sentences in class. 

“I can’t comprehend what’s happening because of how sleepy and tired I am and how unable I am to even keep my eyes open,” she says. 

Unable to get adequate sleep at home, she seizes any opportunity to catch up on sleep, even in the most unconventional places.

“I sleep whenever and wherever I can. I fall asleep on the hallways, on the floor. I fall asleep in the shop building on the benches… I take any moment I can to take a nap. It actually helps a lot of the time.”

“The problem is that they also arrive too late from school,” says the student’s mother, who is aware of her sleep schedule. “If they got out at 1 p.m., they would have more time to do homework.” 

However, her mother said she is not particularly worried, even if she doesn’t think it’s ideal. 

“She seems to have everything under control,” she says of her daughter.

Another senior balances six AP classes, two college classes, college applications, and competitive swimming. The weight of all these responsibilities typically limits her sleeping time to less than four hours between 2:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m..

In the fall semester, a big part of her day is spent in and commuting to her daily swim practice in Redondo Beach, which takes place from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.. As a result, she doesn’t get home until around 9:15, where she is confronted with heaps of college-level schoolwork. 

Missing out on sleep while taking on so many responsibilities exhausts the body, making it difficult to consistently perform at her best in sports. 

“There are some days in practice where I just can’t get my body to do the things it’s supposed to because I just haven’t recovered enough in the previous days,” she says.  

She hopes that next semester, after college applications are over, she will be able to get more sleep. For now, like many other students, she just tries to catch up on sleep and work over the weekend. 

Sleep deprivation doesn’t just affect the busiest upperclassmen, however. One sophomore consistently goes to sleep after midnight, waking up at 7 a.m. On the weekends, he sleeps even later from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m., adding to the inconsistency in his sleep schedule. 

He says he has experienced nodding off in class, head lowering until its weight startles the body and wakes it up. He has even hallucinated in his AP Seminar class from being so tired.

“I swear that I saw a chrome-book in front of me, and I blinked and it was not there,” he says. “I’ve had times where I have to hold my eyelids open in class, and I have managed to fall asleep with my eyes open.” 

While he acknowledges that his sleep deprivation is largely due to his own late night distractions—talking to his girlfriend on the phone and nocturnal workouts—he believes that Venice could do more to support students in getting more rest. 

He suggests that Venice adopt siesta-style naps similar to those in Spain—even if just for 15 minutes during the school day, or that start school even later at 9 a.m..

“Having that 30 minute buffer can mean a lot,” he says. 

Teen sleep deprivation is evident to teachers as well.  

“I usually try to do a quick little read of students as they walk into my class, so I can kind of notice if somebody seems like they’re having a hard day or if they seem particularly down,” says English teacher Hazel Kight Witham. “And then in class, if somebody’s head is down, I often will check in with them. Many times they report ‘I’m just tired.’” 

Kight Witham suggests that these students step outside to get some air, or stand and stretch to gain some alertness.  

Kight Witham believes that phone usage is a large contributor to poor sleep patterns. 

“I do know that we have a lot of research that the amount of screen time we consume has a direct impact on the quality of sleep we get, the length of sleep we get, and that’s often something I ask students: are you on your screen right before bed?” she says.

She says research has shown that exposure to blue light from screens disrupts the natural circadian rhythm. This is a problem also addressed in a book she has read with her classes, Catherine Anne Price’s How to Breakup With Your Phone. She hopes this will give students the tools to reclaim their life and focus on their well-being. 

“I know that if you’re well rested, you’re going to be able to show up so much more for the work in class, and that’s sort of the prime time, you need to be awake and attentive,” she says.

In the demanding world of high school, it is easy to disregard well-being for competitive academics, fun, and a digital getaway. But students will benefit from allowing their body to rest even when their to-do list still has unchecked boxes and their eyes are like moths longing for the blue light of a screen. To perform the best during the day, it is key to let the mind and body settle into the stillness of the night. 

The interview with an anonymous senior’s mother was conducted in Spanish and then translated into English.