By: Elliana Nath
School work can seem overwhelming and encroach upon other areas of students’ lives — sports, family time, or even sleep. It is widely understood that sleep is hugely important to both physical and mental health. Yet oftentimes, students find themselves prioritizing finishing an essay or presentation into the late hours of the night — or even into the wee hours of the morning — over their much needed, nightly sleep.
How Does Homework Affect Student Sleep Patterns?
According to The Better Sleep Council, most American teens spend over fifteen hours a week on homework, one-third reporting over 20 hours. This averages around 2–3 hours per day and one can easily see how homework is a huge time commitment. If a student attends school from 8am-3pm (typical school hours in North America), has an extracurricular activity commitment until 5pm, needs to socialize and connect with their family until 7pm, this already sets nightly homework to last until 9–10pm (if not later). It is pretty understandable how any deviation from a strict schedule can lead to homework taking away from a student’s sleep, but just how much?
“Only about one in five teens is getting 8 hours of sleep or more” (The Better Sleep Council). This is concerning considering the recommended amount of sleep for a 13–18 year old is 8–10 hours per night. In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics called this growing issue of sleep deprivation in teens “a public health epidemic.” Getting under 7 hours of sleep on a consistent basis can lead to the following negative effects on a person’s health: memory issues, mood changes, weakened immunity, increased risk for diabetes and heart disease, poor balance, weight gain, high blood pressure, and trouble with thinking/concentration. In teens specifically, sleep deprivation increases the likelihood of poor grades, drowsy-driving incidents, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts or actions. From these effects, it becomes abundantly clear that one must avoid sleep deprivation. So, if you cannot lessen your workload from school, is there a better way to manage your time so you can still get all 8–10 recommended hours of sleep per night? The answer to that question is most certainly yes!
How Can Time Management Skills Help Me?
Procrastination can be a big obstacle for many teens to overcome when trying to tackle their homework and can cause homework to lead later into the night. Time management techniques can help keep you on track for completing your assignments/studying with time remaining in the night for sleep. A few points below outline strategies that are commonly used to help people better manage their time:
- Identify Distractions: Whether your phone, the television, a friend, or pet, distractions can take away from your productivity and cause homework to take longer.
- Create a To-Do List: Identifying what assignments or studying needs to be done can help reduce anxiety, creating a plan to complete these tasks can help create a clear path of from start to finish — which is easier than trying to tackle everything at once.
- Prioritize Tasks: In your plan, include the priority of each task to make sure you complete the most important things. Tip: Sometimes it helps to start with small tasks to help your motivation and get into a rhythm.
- Focus: Multi-tasking is a myth. So focus on one thing at a time.
- Establish Routines: Time management can become easier if you plan to set aside the same block of time each night to homework (ex. 7–7:30 study Chemistry). This can be helpful to your routine at large, but especially spreading your studying or homework over the week — instead of cramming it into one night — can be helpful for stress, and manages your time more wisely.
Sources:
Alexandria, Va. “Teens, Sleep and Homework Survey Results — Better Sleep Council: Start Every Day with a Good Night’s Sleep.” Better Sleep Council | Start Every Day with a Good Night’s Sleep, 11 Dec. 2018, bettersleep.org/press/press-releases/teens-sleep-and-homework-survey-results/.
“Mastering Time Management for College Students.” Purdue Global, Purdue University Global, 19 Apr. 2018, www.purdueglobal.edu/blog/student-life/time-management-busy-college-students/.
Richter, Ruthann. “Among Teens, Sleep Deprivation an Epidemic.” Stanford Medicine, 8 Oct. 2015, med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/10/among-teens-sleep-deprivation-an-epidemic.html.
Watson, Stephanie. “11 Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Your Body.” Healthline, 15 May 2020, www.healthline.com/health/sleep-deprivation/effects-on-body.