Not getting enough sleep at night usually means you’re going to feel groggy and tired the next day. Few people enjoy waking up without getting a full night’s rest and even less prefer going to school after receiving inadequate sleep. And what’s even worse, recent studies have revealed that not getting enough sleep has some pretty negative effects on an individual’s GPA. That’s right, in recent years, it has been made evident that lack of sleep is part of the formula for poor grades.

The Forbes article “More Sleep Means Better Grades For Students”, by Nick Morrison, highlights the fact that “The closer students get to a full eight hours a night of sleep, the better their grades.”

Later on, Morrison added that the students who get the least amount of sleep receive the lowest grades. The article also features the idea that high schools may consider instilling later school start times to accommodate the teens, which is something that should be looked into by more schools for the well-being of their students.

Children go through enormous changes as they reach adolescence, and some of these changes involve altering the natural sleep cycle. One of the main changes is a delayed sleep phase, and this crucial change can be the very thing keeping a high school student’s grades below par. It’s pretty easy to recognize how poor sleep leads to even poorer grades. Lack of sleep leads to an exhausted feeling and slower thinking, which means students won’t retain and process as much information as they should during school hours. 

Students often have an irregular sleep schedule, sometimes getting an abundance of sleep one day, and a drastically minimal amount the next. Students should try to curb this habit by putting their phones down thirty minutes before they plan to fall asleep, and setting an alarm clock to wake up at a reasonable hour in the morning. These are just a couple of tips we can all use to maximize our sleep time, to ensured we are well rested for the morning and eager to learn.