My Experience:
Being a member of the student government by representing my school and class, I feel deeply privileged to speak out against this persistent issue that we all confront. Student Sleep Deprivation. Through Project Citizen, I have learned how to use my voice and actively promote the changes I believe our society needs to see both locally and nationally. I discovered more about myself and how others operate as I sought out information from different schools to find a universal approach to improving children's academic, social, and mental performance. By reaching out overall in person to meetings, interviews, or virtually by online marketing, calls, emails, and networking. I now reflect, speak up, and connect with people deeper and more proficiently thankfully through Project Citizen. I, together with my team, want to use this initiative to improve our community.
Throughout the years I've had the honor of schooling, I've noticed a significant decline in student sleep even since middle school. As a junior this year with so much on my plate, I try to prioritize my sleep over everything. Despite this, I am fatigued practically every day, knowing that many other students are much worse off. Any effort made to gain extra hours of sleep is always greatly appreciated in order to implement the action of delaying start times at school. Almost all of my conversations with my friends are about how much sleep they had the night before because of how they look physically from first glance. This is due to the two or even no hours of sleep they are receiving, which damage the relationships they have with friends, family, and teachers.
Lack of sleep has caused me to have problems learning and digesting information, especially when I need to manage stress and stay focused at school. Researching for months about how sleep deprivation affects me and others close to me, my group and I through Project Citizen have made great change throughout our community. The discussion about changing school start times is obviously difficult, but other schools around the country have done it and there have been benefits. Having this action taken to rectify this problem will have a significant impact today and for future generations.