Hello Mayfield! We hope you’ve been having a great third quarter!

How many hours of sleep do you get a night? Well, the Mayfield Crier staff asked you guys just that. We conducted a school-wide “Sleep Study” in efforts to raise awareness of the lack of sleep that both students and faculty members experience daily. The Sleep Study involved collecting data results from two surveys (one that was sent to students and another that was sent to faculty members) that asked a variety of questions such as “How many hours of sleep do you get every night?” and “Do you wish you got more sleep?” The results were astonishing. We discovered that the majority of the Mayfield community is undergoing sleep deprivation. Check out Mary Bingham’s “Sleep, or Study?” article to learn more. 

In her article “Sleep Deprivation,” Sophia Sandman, the Mayfield Crier’s Science Editor,  researched the long term effects of sleep deprivation, such as risking the development of a neurological disorder. However, Lauren Mascarenhas, the Crier’s Managing Editor, listed distinct habits that can help students improve their homework management skills while dealing with a lack of sleep in her article “Homework, Eat, (Sleep?), Repeat.”

Rest is particularly important for teenagers in order to power our developing brains. As we undergo a period of extreme growth, it is important to ensure that we sleep enough to avoid the negative long term effects of a lack of rest. 

We would like to bring all that we have learned to the attention of the school so that we can tackle this problem systematically. This is not to say that our school does not care for students’ wellbeing, rather that the role of sleep in a student’s life is often overlooked. 

Mayfield students are typically involved in a myriad of activities, which leaves us with little downtime. The small amount of downtime students do have is often consumed with screens and social media as we attempt to reclaim our time. This can often leave students feeling disconnected or drowsy, which negatively impacts our learning. 

More focus must be spent on students achieving the necessary amount of rest in order to enhance productivity in school. Sleep deprivation causes students to feel unmotivated and distracted in class, which is counterproductive to learning. Students are often bombarded with work outside of class that, while important, detracts from our free time and hinders our sleep. Although the quantity of work assigned to students is a significant obstacle, there are steps Mayfield can take to support the students. 

For example, providing students with more couches or generally comfortable seating around campus would allow for rest between classes or during free periods. A quick power nap when necessary would help us perform better in class and stay more attentive.

Even implementing tech-free or quiet spaces around campus would encourage students to unplug between classes and feel refreshed for their next class, which would increase students’ attentiveness and motivation.

Finally, rethinking our school day structure could prove to be beneficial to students’ well-being. starting the school day even thirty minutes later than we currently do would help students get more rest and start their days more intentionally. Many area schools either start at 8:30 in the morning or have “late start days” where classes start later in the morning. If Mayfield were to adopt the policies that are apparent in other schools, students may start to exhibit more signs of success. 

Lastly, in her article titled “4 Habits to Help Students Achieve a Better Sleep Schedule,” Stella Keyes provides helpful tips that can help students improve their sleep habits during the school year. We hope that this article and the Mayfield Crier’s Sleep Study will help you improve the quality of your Mayfield learning environment this school year.