Sleep is essential for everyone so that we can have our perfect day by concentrating and focusing on our daily tasks. So, do Mounds View students get enough sleep? Let’s answer that question. For students to maintain a good focus, they need to have their desired amount of sleep and rest daily. Sleep helps a person to freshen up and actively participate in their day-to-day activities.

Schoolwork is one of the important parts of a student’s life and it consumes a lot of time, leading to a sleep schedule with which they are not completely satisfied. “I try to get nine hours of sleep daily, but I end up with seven or seven and-a-half hours of sleep. I definitely am able to work a lot more from the beginning actively if I get my nine hours of sleep,” said junior Andres Vargas. Students sometimes try to catch up on sleep on the weekends, after having a very tiring week filled with work. And sometimes, not having the necessary sleep required seems to not work out that well because our bodies tend to work on a daily and not on a weekly basis. So it is very important for students to have regular sleep patterns on both weekends and weekdays.

Students who catch up on sleep on weekends need to understand that it is not healthy and that it is not the same as having enough sleep. “Our body works on a nightly basis rather than on a weekly basis. Oversleeping on weekends will mess up the person’s sleep schedule as well, now how will he be able to sleep on the weekend early enough so the person could get their eight hours of sleep,” said Ross Fleming, Health Department.

Students who don’t have their required amount of sleep start their day tired and they might not be able to focus enough. But students who have more sleep than their required amount, which is eight to ten hours of sleep, are seemingly very active in their classes. There is a connection between the concentration level of students and the amount of sleep they have. “I’m not a person who likes to stay up late and study, I can’t do that but most of friends but I like to go to sleep a bit early and then sometimes study in the morning because I would have had my needed sleep and I would be fresh,” said senior William Nelson.

Even though sleeping more than the advised time is better, it’s still not the best thing. Students who sleep for around 11-12 hours per night can sometimes be labeled as lazy. The student needs to find his or her perfect amount of sleep hours and also has to make sure they don’t undersleep or oversleep. “Eight hours is good but nine hours is the perfect amount of sleep a student should get, 10 hours depends on the person but I think anything more than it is too much. There is a difference between getting enough sleep and being lethargic, and I think getting 11 or 12 hours of sleep is just being lethargic,” added Fleming. 

As much as life in the day is important to a person, they should give equal importance to their life at night. Getting sleep, but not undersleeping or oversleeping, would go a long way in helping the person build a healthy life and make sure they are at their best and always active, instead of not hitting their highest potential just because they did not give their body the rest needed.