WAKING up early never gets easier. Students have been in school for a couple months now, and they still dread waking up the next morning. They continue to hit the snooze button on their alarm clocks in the morning.

Many Lancers wish school started later, but that might be all that helpful. Sure, they’d get an extra hour or two of sleep, but that would get them home that much later in the afternoon. Students with after-school jobs or who are involved in extracurricular activities would end even later than they already do.

“I work for three hours every single day. I don’t have a particular start and end time, so I just have to be clocked in for three hours. The later we get out of school, the later I would get to work and the later I would be able to go home. I’d rather start school earlier and get out earlier,” Baylee Hensley (12) said.

Teenagers need around nine hours of sleep each night, but the average amount they get is around seven hours. Students spend seven hours at school, a few more at work, sports, activities, and countless hours doing homework. Sleep is always the easiest thing to sacrifice, so most of them do not get the needed amount. “By the time I get home and settled to do homework, the sun has already set and my motivation is nearly gone. I always get it done, but sometimes it’s not my best work. I just keep noticing the time pass, so I rush to get it done so I can get some sleep. If school started even an hour later each day, I would be able to stay up later and have better quality work,” Rose Nguyen (9) said.

It is not a surprise that the more sleep anyone gets, the better their moods will be. It definitely has the domino effect because the better our mood is the better quality our work will be. An extra hour or two every morning would go a long way, even an extra ten minutes is helpful. “Getting up early has never been easy for me. I never get enough sleep and I end up being ornery all day and saving my work to do it after school. By the time I get to doing it, I have forgotten the entire lesson and I have no idea how to do the assignment,” Sharol Brand (12) said.

In the future most students’ jobs will begin at 8:00 a.m. After waking up at 6:00 a.m. or 7:00 a.m. in the morning for four years, they should all be in the habit of waking up early, and it will not seem as difficult. Now going to college will be a different story for every student depending on what classes they take and what school they attend.

Changing the time school started would require many other changes. We would have to change the bus schedule, GTI start and end times, and so much more. Sure, waking up before the sun is difficult but at least we are out of class before the sun goes down.