Photo by telemudcat

The clock reads six o’clock but your mind says it’s more like two o’ clock in the morning. You’re never ready to get up at this time. Other people feel the same way.

You’ve heard it a million times before, right? Eight hours a night. Yeah, like that’s possible. How can anyone get sleep around this time of year? Actually, eight and a half hours to nine hours are needed for a teenager, according to Kids Health. Eight and a half hours and nine hours seems like a pretty lucky number, but why?

You need this amount of sleep because there are five stages in the sleep cycle. If you don’t get your full eight and a half hours, then you just end up sleeping through some of the cycles, which is why some people are not happy campers in the morning.

The first and second stage of sleep are the lightest sleep. This is when you can most easily be awakened this is when you hope you won’t be awakened. Stage three and four are the ones we crave most when we’re keeling over, practically dying. They are also the stages that make you want to kill someone if they wake you. The final stage is where dreaming occurs and this is called the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage.

Now, I understand some people who try to go to bed at nine and end up finally going to sleep at an ungodly hour. It sometimes happens to me. This is because your internal clock, so to speak, sets itself when you’re a kid. If you routinely go to bed late, then your body will be trained to stay awake until that given time. There is something you can do to change it, though. Train yourself to always go to bed at nine.

I know it’s hard trying to get to bed what with all the regents, the midterms, the projects, and the whole nine yards. Sleep is really good for you when it comes to this kind of stuff. I know how your minds work, how can I sleep when I have so much other stuff on my plate?

The right question is this: how can you not sleep when you have so much other stuff on your plate? Getting sleep helps you refocus and helps you refresh yourself.

“Partially because of homework, no comment on the subject,” said junior Lance Stobnicke.

“About midnight,” said Courtney Stellmack, also a junior, “I suck at math.”

Sleep really does help everybody, though. I know whatever you are thinking, how do we get sleep if we’ve got two midterms and a project due tomorrow? I completely and totally see your side of it, but if you sleep what is recommended of you, it will reduce stress about school or whatever it is that you are stressed about. Not to mention it will help you to think clearly when taking those exams or trying to think about what to type next for your paper.

So, as you’re sitting here reading this with a caffeinated cup of coffee and a half-finished research paper in the background, consider that sleep is so much more than what you think it is.