At 8:00pm, I have just finished eating dinner with my family and I’m usually just

sitting down to begin working on my hours of homework. Although studies may report
that students do better in school when they go to bed at 8:00pm, I believe that it is very
unreasonable to ask that of a high school student. These students would have no time for
their homework and their studies, they would not be able to participate in any after school
activities and these students would have no personal time to relax. All these items are
essential for student’s success as they progress through the school year.

To start with, students need the appropriate amounts of time for studying each
night to allow them to be completely prepared for the school day ahead of them. This
time frame often varies from thirty minutes all the way to two hours of written homework
and can undulate from around one hour all the way to three hours of homework. If
students were going to bed at 8:00pm, then they would not be prepared for their next
class at all because they would not finish all the assignments for the next day. At best
students would only have half of their homework finished for the next day. Personally,
this mandatory bed time would leave me completely unprepared for my classes the next
day when it comes to all the written assignments that I receive from English, Spanish,
History, and Math. Items I receive vary from reading checks, worksheets, as well as word
problems. All these pieces of work are tedious and require the utmost amount of time and
attention from the student. My math homework is only about fifteen problems, but each
one takes around five minutes to complete, and even with the proper amount of time, I
still get some wrong. Also, studying would become completely inhibited because if the
lack of time, and that would cause test grades to drop dramatically. If I only had ten
minutes to study for each test, I would still be completely in the dark for the test and
inevitably fail the test. When I forgot to study for Spanish one Sunday and tried to study
in the car, I was still lost when I took the test because I had no time to absorb the proper
amount of information. This will cause students grades to plummet counter acting the
initial idea behind this unthinkable curfew. Even if parents found a way to allow their
student to have the proper time for school work, students would have no life outside of
school work.

With this new curfew, all after school activities would be completely thrown out
the window. Almost every single student participates in after school activities in some
way, shape, or form. The variety of activities extends from sports such as football, soccer,
tennis, baseball, and swimming. Students often participate in clubs such as chess club,
science club, Spanish club, and art club. Many students such as myself are involved in
aftercare because of their parent’s jobs. All these items require large amounts of time and
devotion that this new bed time just does not offer. For example, when football practice
finally ends and we hit the locker room, the clock reads 5:45pm. By the time I finally pull
in the driveway of my home it is around 7:00pm. After dinner has hurriedly been eaten, it
is around 8:00pm. Without completing any homework or spending any time with family
it is now time for bed. This 8:00 pm bedtime causes great scheduling conflicts with how
my night goes presently. Most nights when I get home I take a shower, hang out until
dinner, eat dinner, then start homework, then go to bed at around 10:00pm. This night
includes things that are very important to me such as family time. Family time is a way
my family gets to hear about each others day, laugh, and bond together. This new bed
time would put my family under great stress by having my family rush home, scarf down
dinner, rush through homework and go to bed while still dirty and not showered. Even if
students were willing to shed their personal sports, students who have parents who work
full time have a major time constraint. Tons of students are forced to stay after school
under supervision because of their parents late working hours. My mom works in the
financial portion of CNL and works until 5:00pm every day. When I was not playing any
sports, I stayed in aftercare, and the earliest my mom ever got to me was 5:30 to be
picked up. Even this places families at home around the same time every night. This is
just another reason why the 8:00pm bedtime is completely unreasonable for students and
parents to work with. Students are always busy with both school and after school
activities, and these cannot just drop them because of a new medical study.

If even if you take all other hindrances out of the equation, students still need
personal time to relax and enjoy themselves. This time spent for you is a great way to
reduce stress as well as to keep yourself productive and well tempered in school. The
summer is one giant rest period from the stresses of life that allow us to recharge and get
geared up for the next year. Although, during the school year we are not always blessed
with this time to build ourselves back up from the stains of school. On normal days I only
have around thirty minutes before school day round two kicks in before bedtime, this is
barley enough time for me to cool down and relax from the stresses of school. Usually
this time is spent taking a shower then watching the tail end of whatever show is on
DVR. Without these little breaks from life students, such as myself, would begin to lose
motivation and moral, reducing their productiveness in school. If 8:00 was my bedtime,
that would mean coming straight home and starting homework with no break at all from
the intense speed of the day. Today I came home and started this essay without a break
and it has left me very hungry and a little grumpy. Believe it or not, even adults need
their moments out of the fast lane to relax after a hard day on the job. Everyone has
different ways of spending personal time, and my favorite is to sit down in front of the
TV and turn on the Xbox to play a game. This provides the mental stimulation that makes
me relax and enjoy myself. On the other hand, my dad relaxes by flipping on Sports
Center with some popcorn to see what’s happening with the different sports. This
personal time prevents everyone form just becoming a big ball of stress, and no one
enjoys being around someone who is stressed out. This built up anxiety and lack of
relaxation would ultimately lower grades because of lack of focus and moral. This would,
once again, defeat the purpose of this bedtime, lowering the overall grades of high school
students.

Ninety-five percent of the student body has personal or school related activities
extending past 8:00pm. This purposed bed time would leave the students no time for their
homework and studies, it would completely inhibit after school activities, and prevent
students from having the necessary personal time to relax and distress. For all these
reasons this 8:00 pm curfew is not conducive to the life of the average high school
student.