2.5 out of 168. What do you think of? 0.014? 1%? Most people would laugh at this number. That’s ridiculously small, right? Well, what if I told you on average, high schoolers only receive 2.5 hours a week for themselves because of our school schedule? You would think I was joking. But, I’m not. Here’s how I concluded this number.

There are 168 hours in one week. Our high school has a 7 hour school day over the course of a five day week. That makes 35 hours per week dedicated to being present at school. Subtract another 12.5 from extra curricular activities a week, from 2:45 to 5 p.m. after school (This is a bare minimum, as some sports and plays require a longer time to stay after school). This brings us to a total of 120.5 hours leftover. But it doesn’t stop there.

According to ibsurvival.com, the average student, no matter track, gets, “3 to 4 hours [of homework] a week, but it can get to 8”.

So, let’s take the average of 3 and 4 (3.5), and multiply by 6. Add 8 in order to account for the times there are 8 hours a night(we’ll say ‘sometimes’ comes out to about 1/7 of the time), and it comes out to 29 hours of homework per week. This narrows the total down to 91.5 hours.

Don’t worry, I’m not finished yet. An average family spends one hour eating dinner at the table every night. So, 7 hours a week is spent eating dinner with family. Additionally, sleepfoundation.org has concluded that teenagers need 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night. Let’s take the average, 9, and multiply it by 7 to get an average of 63 hours of sleep a week. This brings our total down to 21.5 hours of free time a week for high school students. But the number keeps dropping. Thinkprogress.org found that 80% of  high school students work 19 hours per week at their part time job. Take this from our 21.5 to get our final answer, a WHOPPING 2.5 hours a week to ourselves.

Why is this bad?

Teenagers are in a time in their lives where they should discover who they are. This can only be done through expression, thought, and time to themselves. We get no time to do that. Mostly we use this time to unwind from the stressful day rather than using it to shape ourselves as a person.

Now, this number may seem crazy, but it’s true. Some people make time out of their day to do stuff, which brings their overall downtime total up, but they are taking away from their sleep. While students should get a full 8 to 10 hours, 68.9% of students are recorded saying they receive less than the recommended amount on a regular school night. Insufficient sleep is the leading cause for behaviors such as alcohol consumption, suicidal thoughts and/or actions, and physical inactivity, according to sleepfoundation.org.

There are other factors that could alter the result of these calculations, such as procrastination, refusing to do work because of stress or anxiety, not having after school jobs or activities, so on and so forth. But, the majority of students meet this criteria. And, even if on the off chance someone receives a full 8 hours of sleep, they are still tired for school the next morning.

Why? Because, according to dailymail.co, Professor Foster argues, “‘Teenagers’ body clocks can be delayed between two and four hours and they don’t start to function until 10am or as late as noon.’”

So, when the average student wakes up at 6 a.m., they are waking up at least four hours before their brains can fully function. Additionally, when school starts at 7:35 (for West Morris Central, specifically) we are finished eating lunch and starting our fourth class of the day by the time our brains begin to work at their full potential. No wonder we are always so moody: our schedules stink! The odds are set against us from the get-go.

So, how do we fix it? Unfortunately, after talking extensively with Valarie Moore, who’s been a teacher for several different school districts for over 20 years, I’ve made the educated guess that our school system has based their inability to help students from physical and mental despair on monetary obstacles, such as busing and lights. It may take a lot of money to bus high school students after our already allotted time slot, because the other schools in the township would be bused at that time as well. Apparently, providing extra buses is not worth our well being.

Additionally, If school started even at 9:45 a.m., sports and rehearsals would end at 7 p.m., which isn’t late given the time we would wake up, but is crucial for outdoor sports. Lighting sports fields would require a budget this school does not seem to have, except on useless televisions set up around the school. I guess we’ll just have to live with their consequences.