The ideal amount of sleep for teenagers, according to the National Sleep Foundation, is 8-10 hours a night. However, in high school, almost every class assigns homework, projects, or tests and quizzes to study for nightly, making this number almost impossible to obtain.

Here at Chapin High, 93% of the students have at least one honors class in their schedule, and 74% have at least one AP class, both of which assign more homework and need more studying than average classes. Students spend up to 6 hours a night on homework in pursuit of good grades. While some students don’t have near that amount of work per night, even the students with less than 6 hours of work a night feel like the amount of homework is too much, due to clubs, sports, and after school jobs being factored in.

With all of these added activities, students can’t go straight home and start on their homework every night. In fact, most students don’t start their homework until 6 pm or 7 pm, which can lead to some late nights and only about 5 or 6 hours of sleep. Andrew Caldwell, a sophomore, said, “I sometimes only get four hours of sleep because I have do homework after work.”

So, do students get too much homework? Only 17% say no. One student, senior Addison Blackmon said, “Certain teachers give way more than what is needed to get a good grade in class and is instead causing unnecessary stress and less sleep.” Another student, junior Bryce Myers, said, “most classes give more than they rightly should.” Homework can also be stressful to students. Alli Rhodes, a sophomore, said, “sometimes I spend more time stressing about homework than actually doing it.”

Teachers, on the other hand, say that the homework is necessary to make sure that students understand the material and are prepared for tests. Mrs. Kimberlin, an English 3 and AP Lit teacher, says that homework is an important part of the learning process for “when students need to practice individually.” She also said that the level of the class students are taking definitely affects the work they get. “In English, reading paces differ, so some students can take longer than others. AP Lit gets a lot more work than a CP or Honors class, and students need to plan ahead.”  

This isn’t a new problem. When students have 8 classes, it is easy for the homework to stack up. While most teachers assign a reasonable amount of homework, it adds up quickly. Even though the amount of sleep students get due to homework is detrimental to their health and well being, don’t expect change to happen quickly.