It’s 6:15 a.m. on a Friday morning and your alarm clock rings.  You drag yourself out of bed, barely keeping your eyes open, and into the car, to get to your 7:00 a.m. water polo practice.

Your drive is filled with envy as you think of your friends getting their beauty sleep for a better and more focused school day.

With all of the challenging courses and extracurriculars we have on our plates, it can be hard for us to find time for sleep. Throw sports into the mix, and our schedules become nearly impossible to prioritize.

Some students make sleep their top priority, but others fail to recognize the impact sleep can have on our day-to-day lives.

Sports practices should be held only in the afternoon because morning practices restrict kids from getting the vital sleep that late starts intended to create.

The National Sleep Foundation urges students to pay more attention to the amount of sleep they get, and by this point you are probably tired of all of the statistics that continue to get thrown at you.

However, considering that The National Sleep Foundation recommends getting 9.25 hours of sleep per night for teenagers, I can say with confidence that a large percentage of the school does not come even close.

In the 2014 Challenge Success survey, PHS students reported getting an average of just over 6.5 hours per night.   

In an effort to follow the researchers’ recommendations, the administration has allowed us more sleep at least once, and depending on your needs, possibly twice per week.

In spite of this, students are required to give up this sleep for their morning activities.

For athletes like sophomore Maya Guzdar, having water polo practice in the morning allows for a less stressful afternoon and the ability to go to bed much earlier.

Even though she feels much more tired throughout the day, Guzdar feels morning practice is worth it if she has more time for homework and the ability to go to bed earlier that night.

Although some teenagers find it feasible to go to bed earlier, The National Sleep Foundation has found that even when teens are provided with the chance to go to bed early, they are often unable to actually fall asleep.

As teenagers, our circadian rhythms make it very difficult for us  to fall asleep before 11:00 p.m.

The circadian rhythm is our internal biological clock that regulates the times at which we feel most alert or most sleepy.

The shift in circadian rhythm brought on by adolescence ultimately causes melatonin levels to spike much later at night, giving teenagers a natural feeling of alertness until late at night. Morning practices may reduce homework stress, and I understand that practice times are hard to schedule, but students with morning practice may not be able to go to bed as early as they hope, causing them to lose even more sleep when they must wake up early for practice

Coaches should help their teams’ athletic and academic performance by moving their Tuesday and Friday practices to the afternoon.