The Stigma of Sleep
By ARYAN AGARWAL ‘27
How many hours of sleep did you get last night? As a protruding question in our daily lives, one ponders the presence of a stigma around the answer. Exonians find themselves toiling away, night after night, completing every last homework assignment, waiting till they can sigh of relief.
After showering, and then completing their scrolling routine for the night, they can settle in for what should be a good night’s rest. That is all until they realize that it’s 1:30 AM, and that they have an 8:00 AM chemistry class lingering around the corner. They wake up multiple times in the middle of the night, whether it is to their roommates “Beacon” alarm ringer, their neighbor blasting “Lover” by Taylor Swift, or after they are jumpscared by the periodic table in their nightmares, leaving them with five-hours of sleep, if you can even call it that. This issue is a persisting detriment to the exceptional education that we have promised ourselves here.
If one asks a fellow Exonian what they think that a good amount of sleep is for an average school night, many will find themselves getting answers around six, maybe seven hours of sleep. This is objectively wrong. Exonians are made to think that we are wired differently than the rest of the human population, and that mediocre sleep shall suffice for an extraordinary developmental process throughout our years at Exeter. Multiple studies show that children from the ages of thirteen to eighteen need 8-10 hours of sleep per night, but at Exeter, students readily ignore this necessity. This is a chronic issue throughout the world but it is especially amplified at the Academy. Teachers assign a supposed fifty-minutes of homework per class meeting, but this is of course flawed, as in reality, completing the average assignment may take much longer. If they don’t complete these assignments just so that they can get a reasonable amount of sleep, teachers put their behavior off as lazy or uncommitted. This leaves us with an environment where students are scared to get the proper amount of sleep, as there is a supposed inverse correlation between the amount of sleep that you get and how hard-working you are. In reality, to properly function at our full capability, we must provide ourselves with proper rest, consistently throughout the week.
After establishing that Exonians seem to be getting lackluster shut-eye, we come face-to-face with the reality of its consequences. My father, an outsider to Exeter, told me that one of the most surprising things that he noticed during Family Weekend was the amount of yawning from my peers and me. To us, we barely notice it, as it has become a norm in our lives. Students’ focus is hindered, ability to retain information hampered, and many other functions that are crucial to learning are being impeded upon. By the time that we get to our extracurriculars, we are already drained of energy from our tedious academic schedule. And in regards to a social life, those who maintain one are lucky to do so, and likely are ignoring some other parts of their health. A saying that some of my fellow Peabodians have coined goes something like this. You can only have two of the following three: good grades, good friends, and good sleep. That in itself tells you everything that you need to know about the mindset at Exeter. We believe that we need to sacrifice certain parts of our health to balance others, but this is simply not true, as each aspect is interdependent, and this is true of sleep as well.
The solution to this problem is not black and white. The sleep habits that institutions such as the CDC preaches(linked below), seem impractical for Exonians to fit into their schedule. Still, we can implement change by acting upon smaller aspects of our sleep. For example, rather than using your electronics right before bed, it may be helpful to read or meditate for fifteen minutes before sleeping to enhance the quality of your rest. Additionally, taking warm showers before bedtime can be relaxing for your body, as the temperature adjustment after stepping out will allow for quicker sleep. You may even order some black-out curtains to ensure that you aren’t woken to artificial light.
As you and your peers continue throughout your time at Exeter, consider how small habits before your bedtime will compile, leaving you with a better experience in all aspects of your life. It can be difficult to ignore the stigma around sleep, but as we normalize proper rest, we will see that Exonians will become more successful, happier, and better people.
CDC Resource: https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/sleep_hygiene.html