“Sending kids to school at 7 a.m. is the equivalent of sending an adult to work at 4 in the morning,” said William Dement, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University said. Teens get super sleep deprived even if they get the full 8 hours of sleep. According to a study by Brown University School of Medicine, ninth- and tenth-grade students should get nine hours of sleep each night to maintain optimal alertness. However, after surveying 3,000 high school students, researchers found that, on average, students managed only about 7.5 hours or less of sleep on a school night. This sleep deprivation was even more pronounced in high school boys than in girls. 

Teenagers have a lot of people tell them what to do all the time. “Imagine having six bosses, all with large amounts of power over your daily life and future. Each boss has different expectations, ways of working, levels of competency, and degrees of emotional intelligence. And if you don’t satisfy each one, your career is on the line.” That is what teens feel like every day they go to school. Students say having teachers telling us what to do and then going home and having our parents or guardians tell us more we have to do. 

Around Delta High School the majority of students said the biggest problem that they struggled with most, and most of them said they were trying to fit in. The struggle for identity is hard. Teenagers like to be different, but at the same time, they want to fit in. Because of this, they often face pressure from peers, parents, and society to behave a certain way to feel accepted and valued by those around them. 

The Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois discovered in a study of nearly 500 adolescents that peer-related stress contributes to depression in youths. Teachers have also observed that peer stress negatively affected a student’s academic performance and overall emotional well-being. What’s more, when adolescents were unable to adapt to these external stressors, they ended up ruminating over the issue, which exacerbates the problem and increases their susceptibility to depression. Dr. Mark,  head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois 

“We’re asking teenagers to be very responsible and mature, and to make sensible decisions for the greater good of society, I think that’s probably quite a conflict,” said  Dr. Maria Loades, a senior lecturer and clinical psychologist at the University of Bath who studies the effect of social isolation and loneliness in young people.