Finally, you are able to let out a sigh of relief. Your long night of homework comes to an end as you slam your textbook shut.

It’s time to get a good night’s rest before the school day tomorrow. Reaching for your cell phone, you discover that it’s gotten late. Very late. The clock on your phone reads three in the morning. How could the hours possibly get away that quickly?

Teenagers nowadays find themselves hitting the snooze button a lot more often than usual. According to the National Children’s Hospital (NCH), high school students don’t get enough sleep for a number of different reasons.

A sudden change in schedule, mountains of homework, and hundreds of different distractions prevent most teens from receiving what is considered a good amount of rest.

“It really just depends on the person,” freshman Zach Wagner said. “Some people definitely need more sleep than others to function in school. I guess a few people stay up to get homework finished, which isn’t a bad thing.”

Most students admit that homework was definitely one of the biggest reasons they were up late into the night.

“I always go to bed at around two in the morning,” sophomore Caitlyn Scheck said. “I have to stay up to do my homework. I can’t even keep my eyes open in the mornings most of the time.”

Sophomore Mkilar Otte said he usually goes to bed around 2 a.m.

“I do two sports, debate, quiz bowl, and I have to find some way to get all of my homework done,” Otte said. “Honestly, staying up late is the only reason I can maintain good grades, but it’s not like I’m up just messing around.”

However, some students are just awake at night simply because they can.

“I usually pass out at around two or three in the morning,” freshman Ashton Balthazar said. “I don’t normally have homework; I’m just up because I choose to be up.”

Junior Kaelin Leach blames his lack of sleep on all the distractions surrounding him.

“There’s stuff like ‘Youtube’ and ‘Netflix’ that keep me and other people up at night. I’m always going to bed way past midnight,” Leach said. “I guess it’s just not hard to lose track of time.”

The NCH states that staying up past 11 p.m. and waking up at 7 a.m. can really affect a person’s mood for the day, or possibly even longer.

“I can get pretty cranky if it’s super early when I get up,” Otte said. “Hopefully, I don’t have a psychotic breakdown later in life from not sleeping like I should be.”

17aweber@usd489.com