Contemplating the Mysteries of the World - Part 7: Sleep

Honestly, I am exhausted. I was up until 3am last night because of Marching Band and I had to be up at 8am this morning. For a teen, I usually have a generally normal sleep schedule, this weekend was just weird. But honestly, why do people generally not get enough sleep? Seriously, we need sleep to function, we are less effective when we are tired and it doesn't make sense why sleep is often not considered a priority. Many things are to blame for society's chronic lack of rest, especially in teenagers. Technology, homework, activities, and friends can all be factors that impact this (OMG I sound like I am writing a 5 paragraph essay for English class rn...).

Everyone knows that modern society is obsessed with technology as I have already addressed in previous posts, but I have not discussed how it effects sleep (at least I don't think I have...). I have friends that stay up all hours of the night on Tik Tok, and I myself am guilty of playing Minecraft until 1am every single day over the summer. Our cell phones and computers are now more of a priority than resting to be productive in our daily lives. Homework is another issue. Now that everything is virtual and online based work, teens are being given more assignments to do that way too much time. During my junior year of high school, there were some days that I spent 5+ hours doing homework for just 1 class. And before you say it, no, I did not procrastinate a huge project that I had a week to do, this was just an assignment that I had one night to do. Technology makes it easier for teachers to grade many types of assignments, so they often assign more work and that just makes it harder on the students. Personally, I am very involved when it comes to school activities. There are days that I would go to school at 7:15am and not come home until 9:30 at night because I had 3 different practices that night. Teens keep themselves busy, all of that time spent plus time on homework really adds up. People also spend a lot of time hanging out with their friends, but I don't really know much about that because "hanging out with my friends" is just a phrase that means band practice for me.

Overall, people need to get more sleep. If we did, maybe people will be less jerky towards one another. Personally, I am nicer when I am not tired, maybe this is true for other people. My overall point: put down your phone/computer and get some sleep. I think I am done ranting about sleep, now I am going to go take a nap. Thank you for your cooperation,

Rosie.