This year, given how much has gone on, has impacted many people in several ways. One way in consideration is their sleeping schedules. The constant murmurs of them saying they’ll go to bed soon only to be met with the sunrise. Sleep has lost itself to the struggles of COVID-19 and school.

Sleep is a necessity that everyone needs on a daily basis, but how much sleep they get can be affected by what is going on in their lives. For a lot of people, it’s harder to manage their time when these things come flying at them which causes them to lose sleep. Senior, Ra’Miyah McBride, started to lose her sleep when she made a sudden decision.

“My sleeping schedule was steady until I decided to graduate early with the class of 2021 at the last minute. I started rushing doing my senior classes and not sleeping until morning for about 3 hours,” stated McBride.

Looking back, a lot of students seem to notice the difference between their sleeping schedules when they were in elementary and middle school to now. Things have become a lot different, whether it be extracurricular activities or just studying. Junior, Andrea Sanchez, used to have a stable sleeping schedule but lost it in a battle with homework.

“My sleeping schedule is all over the place. However, when I was younger, before going to high school, I would go to bed between 8:30 and 10:30. Now, I go to sleep between 11:30 and 1:30 AM. My sleep schedule has become like this because of homework and studying for upcoming tests,” stated Sanchez.

Homework has caused a lot of people to cut the small things from their life, especially sleep. The older students grow, the more homework they get which causes time to be harder to manage. Junior, Liana Northcutt, isn’t able to do what she wants since she’s so busy with homework.

“My sleep schedule is complicated. I don’t have the freedom to talk to my family for as long as I would like. I used to hang out with my family until 7 and then start my homework at 8 and not finish until 1 AM or later. When it comes to school, before I organized my time. Now I’m always tired and not focused in class,” stated Northcutt.

Even teachers are beginning to notice that their students are losing sleep to the amounts of homework they’re receiving. It has become most common with the virtual kids given that they are at home so much and put in a struggle to motivate themselves. English teacher, Alyssa Nuttal, knows that her students are staying up doing homework.

“By the time they submit their assignments, it’s like 2 or 4 AM, and then they come into class asleep. I’m like, no wonder you’re sleeping because you submit your assignments at the wee hours of the night. To be honest, I’m okay with them turning their assignments in that late because at least it’s turned in,” stated Nuttal.

Students are not the only ones who have a hard time keeping up with sleep, teachers are also having a difficult time. With COVID-19, the split between in person and online, teachers are put under pressure to make sure their students are kept in check. AP Psychology teacher, Heather Willson, has resorted to going to the doctor due to how bad her sleep schedule has gotten.

“My sleeping schedule is horrible this year. I don’t know if I’m like more stressed out or because I don’t do enough physical stuff but I have a hard time going to sleep. I’m always exhausted, it’s gotten so bad that I’m actually going to a doctor and be like help me. I’m just so tired, it’s not working out anymore,” stated Willson.

Keeping up with sleep has become a struggle for a lot of people this year with all the complications they are constantly met with. Whether or not they decide to fix it is now up to them, but it could be difficult seeing how so many people are pushing for things to go back to normal.