Now that school has been in session for over a month, students are perhaps feeling less stressed than they were over the past month. Freshmen may have already experienced the so-called ‘culture shock’ of high school. Typically the beginning and end of school years, as well as the end of semesters are the worst times for student stress levels.
Stress can be caused by all sorts of factors during the school year, from tests to friendships to extracurricular activities. However, one of the leading factors to stress is lack of sleep. This issue plagues the high school population, as the average amount of sleep for them is a little less than six and a half hours a night, according to the Huffington Post. Fairfax County Public Schools’ health classes teach that the absolute minimum amount of sleep that a student should get is seven and a half hours, but this is easier said than done. If a student sleeps around 35 hours during the week, no amount of sleep on the weekend can compensate for that loss, and a student will become sleep deprived over time, negatively affecting the quality of their education.
Students with extracurricular commitments are sometimes unable to get home until 9:30 Pm, where they then still have up to four or five hours of homework. This forces many students to sacrifice their sleep for the sake of a good grade, and only increases their stress levels.
Increased stress levels are also medically dangerous. In the long-term, stress can lead to obesity, anxiety, depression, heart disease, addiction, and actually can shorten a person’s life span. According to the 2013-2014 Fairfax Youth Survey, just over 30% of FCPS students say they have ceased their normal activities because of consistent feelings of extreme depression for a period of two weeks or longer. For some people, stress is a trigger for these feelings of depression and anxiety.
When dealing with stress it’s important to remember what is a good way of coping and what isn’t a good way of coping. The Mayo Clinic provides an overview of harmful and helpful coping strategies. For example, stress eating is a way some people choose to deal with stressful situations, and it is known to lead to obesity, for obvious reasons. Addiction or substance abuse is another way people attempt to escape stress, which is also clearly more harmful than helpful. The best way to deal with stress is to take a break from the source of your stress. Whether that takes the form of a short 30 minute break in the middle of working on an assignment, or taking a longer break from some of your many obligations, it is important to focus instead on a positive, enjoyable task. Some people also use intensive exercise to temporarily push the source of stress from their thoughts. All of these methods are effective because they take your mind off of the stresses, allowing you to calm down and think clearly while not causing harmful effects the way substance abuse or stress eating will. Getting enough sleep is also essential to maintaining a healthy level of stress.
Most importantly, if you ever feel like you can’t handle your workload or your friendships or whatever it is that is stressing you out so much, talk to someone. The school counselors, school psychologist, and school social worker are here for that reason, and so are your parents. It’s always better to talk to someone then make a choice you’ll regret, and plenty of people will help you, you just need to reach out to them.
If you or someone you know ever needs help with this sort of situation, Call the CrisisLink Hotline at 703-527-4077, and text the Crisis Text Hotline at 703-997-5444.