Student Speeches: 826 Boston students take on wellness-based issues (Week #2)

What wellness-based issues have you noticed in our community and how can they be tackled? This was the question Boston International Newcomers Academy (BINcA) 10th graders tackled earlier this year during a speech contest organized by their English Language Arts class. 826 Boston Writers’ Room tutors worked with several students to craft their essays, and a few even joined the judges' panel. Students were tasked with exploring the theme of “Wellness,” identifying an issue, and providing evidence-backed solutions—all through a well-crafted speech. We're excited to share a few of these speeches with you every Wednesday, here on LinkedIn!?

This week, we’re excited to share a speech written by Laissa, who believes that students deserve more sleep and shouldn’t have to show up to school like “zombies.” She advocates for schools to have later start times and points to research that shows how more sleep can improve students’ well-being, academic performance, and overall health. An anti-zombie campaign, if you will.??

About Laissa: Laissa is 15 years old and she is from Haiti. She chose this topic because she experienced this last school year. Outside of school, she likes to read, go for walks, and listen to music. One fact about her is that she is trilingual.?

I am a teenager. I don't sleep enough at night. I only sleep for five hours because it’s difficult for me to sleep before 11:00 PM because of social media and homework. I have friends like me that don't sleep enough at night. Have you ever tried to open your eyes in the morning and you cannot open your eyes?

The life of a teenager is not easy. They have to wake up every morning at 6:00 AM or earlier to go to school. The problem is that young people are not getting enough sleep because school starts early. They don't get enough sleep and can't concentrate in class because of that. It affects them by not concentrating in class because of lack of sleep. School should change the start time in order for students to have enough time to sleep. They should change the time that school starts because not getting enough sleep leads to higher risk of obesity, depression, diabetes, and also it can cause you to have poor mental health. Students have been working at school so they don’t get enough sleep, which can cause problems with attention and bad behavior.

Lack of sleep can turn teens into zombies. According to the article, "Early School Starts Can Turn Teens into ‘Zombies,’” almost all teenagers, as they reach puberty, become walking zombies because they are getting far too little sleep. This shows that young people who don’t sleep enough can be slow and have a lack of focus in school. Lack of sleep directly affects how teens who are not sleeping enough think and feel. They can feel drowsy during the day with slowed thinking, lack of energy, and an irritable mood. Young people who are not sleeping enough have a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, injuries, poor mental health, sleep deprivation, and problems with attention. Sleep deprivation leads to lower alertness and concentration. It is more difficult to focus and pay attention so you are more easily confused. Regularly not getting enough sleep leads to chronic sleep deprivation.

This can have dramatic effects on a teenager’s life, impacting their mental wellbeing, increasing their risk of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. It can also affect academic performance at school. According to the same article by Stephen Ornes, sleep deprivation can lead to accidents and also affects students' earning potential.

Later school start is very beneficial for students, allowing them to save money to have a better future. By changing the school start time, students will benefit because they will be more interested in the classwork and focused in class. Furthermore, research shows teenagers’ health improves with later school start times, because adolescents struggle to get up early in the morning and to go to sleep early at night. This shows that, with later school start time, the adolescents have good health, and now it doesn't cost more to get up in bed because they had enough time to sleep. The evidence in this case shows that students had great benefits with later school time.

Changing the time school starts is good because it can help adolescents get enough sleep and improve their health, academic performance, and quality of life. Some people say that they have more energy when they sleep less. You are wrong because scientists prove that you need seven to eight hours to be focused.

As you can see, students are not getting enough sleep. Sometimes when they come to school they are tired and their minds are not ready to work. So, not getting enough sleep can put your life at risk, for example: diabetes, depression, obesity, and also it turns kids into zombies. Therefore, schools should change the start time so students can get time to sleep. This will improve the obesity, diabetes, and the heart disease wellness of teenagers because they will have more time to sleep. It can prevent teenagers from suffering from these diseases. In the meantime, each of you should try to get enough sleep because it's very important.

Ornes, Stephen. “Early School Starts Can Turn Teens into ‘Zombies.’” Science News Explores, December 5, 2019. https://www.snexplores.org/article/early-school-starts-can-turn-teens-zombies.