At 2:00am, students are still awake finishing assignments, studying for tests and finals, and responding to emails and notifications that never stop. For many high school students, stress has become part of everyday life.
Even after the final bell at 3:15, students are still attending practices for sports, clubs, or hours of homework or studying. Some students stay awake late into the night studying for exams or finishing assignments.
“I usually stay up until midnight finishing homework”, Maggie Rambach stated.
According to recent studies on teen mental health, lack of sleep and constant pressure can negatively affect both academic performance and emotional well being.
Burnout can have a huge impact on students, making them do things like, fall behind in class, missing assignments, or losing interest in activities they once enjoyed.
Social media can also add stress by creating unrealistic comparisons between student achievements, lifestyles, and appearances. Including technology such as Infinite Campus, allows students to access assignments, grades, and messages that are available all the time.
“It feels like I’m always behind, even when I’m trying my best. There’s always another assignment waiting, and it never really feels like I can fully catch up”, said by Allison Garcia
Notifications and constant communication can make it difficult to rest or focus on personal time.
Over time this ongoing cycle of maintaining good grades, preparing for college, and keeping up with the expectations for school can have a negative toll on students and lead to exhaustion. Teachers have noticed that more students seem overwhelmed and quiet than earlier in the year, this raises concerns about how academic demands are affecting our students’ well beings.
School is meant to prepare students for the future, this constant stress can lead to harm instead of helping them succeed. As these conversations about mental health continue to grow, many students, teachers, and parents are beginning to ask the same questions: How much stress is too much?