RIA A.

My Experience:

My name is Ria Abraham and I am a junior at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Project Citizen has really helped my knowledge of student lack of sleep increase dramatically. I, and countless other students at Ridge High School have experienced how academic pressures impact sleep habits. This school in general is extremely competitive so you feel like you have to work 10 times harder just to compare with others. As a student in junior year, I had previously only heard how difficult this year is, with SATs and ACT's, AP exams, and the stress of college applications looming over your head every day. Having almost completed this year I can honestly say this year has been even more difficult than I expected. Juggling school, work, volunteering, and extracurriculars take up so much time every day, barely allowing time for sleep. 

Having struggled with sleep my whole life, this topic has been extremely important to me. My personal issues with sleep have motivated me to have an active voice in regard to educating people about the effects lack of sleep has on young adults. I have learned so much about the policymaking behind getting school start times pushed back, the possible ways to influence the community, and so much more. Now that my group has done the research on possible solutions to this problem and multiple different ways we can implement it, we hope that it will make the process to start change much easier. 

After completing this project, it made me realize that change is possible. The importance of sleep has been engrained into my brain and i'll never forget this information. There are so many negative effects that not getting a good night of sleep causes, and finding a way to remedy that is extremely vital to students. I have learned so much from these past months about my district and the entire country regarding sleep deprivation and can't wait to see change happen.