AFTER an eight-week vacation comes to a sad end, it’s time to get a daily routine started up again. Many may have their routines set, or you’re barely starting off on figuring out how to manage your time in the morning.

Sleeping is a big part of everyone’s life, and it’s needed to be able to proceed with the rest of your day. Sometimes the amount of sleep dictates the rest of your day like it’s a power button: it takes control of how your mood is or how you focus, behave, and process things. Not getting enough sleep can lead to sleep deprivation and affect your long-term health.

In Utah alone, 62% of high school students don’t get a sufficient amount of sleep on a regular school night. Typically, the average amount of sleep needed for high schoolers is 8-10 hours per night. Being teenagers, we’re naturally inclined to stay up later and wake up later, but with school that isn’t possible. This causes tiredness throughout the day, which can lead to daytime sleepiness that could interfere with your learning in school, your mood, or just trying to stay awake during the day.

Now social media is becoming a huge thing all over the world, and many teens have lost sleep due to staring at a screen. According to the Utah Department of Health & Human Services, many teens are using TikTok, especially between midnight and 5:00 a.m. In 2023, the SHARP survey asked 52,000 students across the state about their screen time. Almost 80% of students use social media two or more hours a day.

Since you’re in high school, you try to balance all of the above: school, work, sports, and your social life. Handling all these extracurriculars and still trying to wake up for school on time is difficult — especially when you start to give up and it starts to feel like a choice between getting more sleep or waking up for school. I’d think it’s obvious that many of us would pick sleep. That’s when grades start to drop and attendance feels optional. DO NOT DO THIS! It will mess up your grades.

Personally, I’ve gone through it with my sleeping schedule due to having work, soccer, school, and still trying to do things outside of school. I don’t have a specific time I sleep by; it’s more like I’ll go to sleep once I get to it. Some weeks I get a good night’s sleep, and other nights I might get only four hours. We all have habits, but it’s never too late to fix them.

It all starts with you figuring out how to balance everything — like work, sports, school, or outside-of-school activities — or doing things like making sure you stay off your phone before going to sleep to benefit your daily life and health. Getting rid of all distractions and creating a night routine that fits your daytime schedule will help you succeed.