Sleeping not a waste of time

By Han Seung-hee

In early March, I started my high school life at a boarding school an hour south of Seoul. Since then, one thing has remained consistent (in addition to all the work): the ubiquity of students struggling with sleep.

Many of my friends stay up very late doing one thing or another and, consequently, spend the next day dozing off in classes. The consensus seems to be that sleep isn’t so important. Yet, though it varies from person to person, it is still essential for us to sleep sufficiently.

So what is keeping high school students up late? Generally, it is because of an overwhelming amount of work.

For example, this week my classmates and I had to submit two essays about the Declaration of Independence and economics, prepare for the 100-word vocabulary test we take every week and meet teammates to talk about the economic class’s presentation, an English debate, a school research project and a book club. That’s in addition to constantly reviewing things we cover in every class. It’s never-ending.

Anxiety also takes away a lot of students’ sleep. In the self-studying period (7 p.m.-11 p.m.), students find others studying very hard and feel the pressure that they should study hard as well.

During exam time, some students study together in the lounge, a living room-like place in the dormitory, and it seems to me that they compete over who can stay up longer. They drink energy drinks, coffee and eat chocolate to stay awake until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m.

I asked my friend if that is actually an effective way to study - to study while reducing sleep - and she said she can’t really concentrate but seeing others working hard leaves her with no other choice.

Unsurprisingly, according to the National Sleep Foundation, not getting enough sleep or having sleep difficulties can limit your ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. This means that sleeping less actually results in a low quality of studying. It’s no wonder my friend got a 67 on her precalculus test.

Recently, there was a mattress advertisement on Korean TV that emphasized the following Thomas Edison quote: “Personally, I enjoy working about 18 hours a day. Besides the short catnaps I take each day, I average about four to five hours of sleep per night.”

Now, should we all follow what he did? The National Institute of Health has found that by getting an adequate amount of sleep people can control their hormones, including those that control appetite, and can store and retrieve their memories better because brains work on memory during sleep.

Thus, sleeping is not a waste of time; it is an essential to prevent the day from becoming a waste. Maybe Edison could’ve been more productive if he slept more.

Then, how can students get enough sleep? When I first thought about this problem, I found that writing down what to do was a great idea. I own a calendar that contains my entire schedule, assignment due dates, birthdays and club activity meetings.

With it, I can set the priorities in my head with just a glance at the due dates. Then what about people who are not sure if they could possibly get things done in the given time? For them, I think they should learn to choose and concentrate.

This spring, I took two AP exams, and just a week before the test, I had to choose whether to practice lacrosse or study for the exam. I chose both of them and failed to excel at either one.

It is said that 8-10 hours of sleep per night is adequate for developing teens. I doubt many teenagers will fulfill this quota because the final exam period has arrived and there is a looming omen of the war between students and sleep.

Still, I hope students realize that studying while not sleeping is deleterious to not only one’s health but also academic performance. Students should plan wisely.

The writer is a first-year student at the Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies in Gyeonggi Province.