In order for a teen’s brain to develop and grow, they need sleep, but with school, chores, after-school activities and homework, it makes this process difficult.

According to, nationwidechildrens.org, the average teen needs at least 9.5 hours of sleep a night. Most teenagers only get, at most, six hours. This is because they spend our nights drowning in hours of homework.

Many students my age stay up until 1 or 2 a.m. cramming in all their homework, and even then, they may not even finish it. Teachers give way too much homework for students these days, and they don’t stop and think about how much stress they’re putting on them.

It’s no longer about understanding the material — it’s now about getting a good grade and passing the test.

Teachers should be more understanding of everything that teens have going on. School isn’t the only thing in our lives.

Many teens have after-school activities that they go to for several hours a day, and it may be 6 or 7 p.m. by the time they get home. In that time, they have to eat, maybe shower and then school expects them to sit down for 2, 3 or maybe more hours and stare at a bright computer screen.

When do students get time to relax? We are expected to have good grades, be good at a sport, help around the house, go to school for eight hours, do homework, have a good social life, keep our hygiene good AND sleep nine hours a night? That seems a little insane.

Many adults will blame the phones for us doing badly in school and for us not sleeping enough, but that’s not it at all. So much is expected of teenagers because we are almost adults and need new responsibilities and need to figure out how to problem solve, but if we can’t get a break during the day it’s hard for us to function.

With all the homework, projects and tests we have to study for, teens don’t get enough sleep at night, which makes it almost impossible to pay attention in class and stay awake. But, if we don’t pay attention in class and learn what’s being taught, we can’t do our homework. Then, we end up spending more time trying to learn what we were supposed to learn in class and then doing the homework that we get even less time to sleep. It’s an endless cycle.

Forget about catching up on school work if you miss a day or two of school because that’s almost impossible. Teachers keep adding new assignments to the pile of existing things you already had to do.

We have no time to do fun things like hanging out with friends, riding bikes or going on walks. School is taking over our lives and causing unwanted and unneeded stress — it needs to stop.