*Beep, beep, beep* I hear. After a minute it stops, and I fall back asleep. It felt like a noise coming from a distant universe, turning my dream off and waking my brain up.

Seconds pass and I fall back asleep but not much after I hear it again, this time the noise sounding more real.

*BEEP, BEEP, BEEP* I open my eyes and check my phone who’s sleeping right next to me and realize I overslept. Now I have to rush my morning routine: doing my hair, my skincare, finding an outfit for the day, and making sure my makeup is done and perfume is on, the worst part is…I only have thirty minutes.

Students in the iSchool all have different morning routines. Most girls share common habits while getting ready in the morning, while most boys don’t even consider themselves having a morning routine. How we take care of ourselves on a daily basis definitely affects us as students. But how?

9th grader Erianny Aguila says, “If I went to sleep earlier I’ll be less tired in the mornings which happens because I go to sleep late. Although I do, I try to be very punctual when it’s time for me to get out of bed and start my morning.”

Everyday it’s a struggle being on time to school. No matter how early you may wake up, if you don’t work at 2x speed, life will find a way to make you late.

Sometimes I even set my mind to being earlier and to catch the train on time but somehow it’s a coincidence that I leave my house at the same time no matter the determination. It’s ideal to have one or two hours to get ready in the morning but there is always the decision of either prioritizing your time, or your sleep.

It’s common for high school students in the present day to struggle going to sleep early. That challenge can come from being too distracted by devices at night, or because that’s when school work is done. For a lot of kids, night time is the best time to be productive, and in my case it causes me to go to sleep later than I should.

Alejandro, a ninth grade student at the iSchool mentions, “I get home at 5-5:30 and take an hour-long shower. Then it takes like 30 mins for me to eat and an hour to do homework. After that I mostly just play games and end up going to sleep at around 11.” He comments that if it weren’t for his video games he would probably go to sleep earlier.

Sherlyn Mata, a freshman in our community, also mentions, “My average time to go to bed on a school night would be around 10:00 p.m. I say this because I get home around 6:00 then I would have to shower and do my homework as well as eat and then I’ll have to take care of my siblings so it’s just all builds up to being 10.” For Sherlyn, the most common cause for her schedule after school is her responsibility as an older sister. Instead of going to sleep at 10 because of watching too much TikTok or playing games, she does it because she has no other choice.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, very few teenagers are logging the right amount of hours of sleep they need. Between 2009 and 2021, the percentage of high school students who did not get enough sleep increased from 69% to 77%, according to data from the CDC National Youth Risk Behavior Surveys.

Procrastination is something we have all experienced, at least once. Whether it’s used productively or not, it is common for students or even teachers to leave something at the last minute. This may be for the feeling of stress or overstimulation with work but regardless of our individual reasons, it does affect our performance.

Another example of a student from our community is seen in Erianny. She says, “I do homework that I have pending but sometimes like I said I get really lazy and I start doing other things instead of homework that aren’t my priorities like scrolling on TikTok takes up for hours and then I do my homework really late which ends up making me go to sleep later than I should.”

Many high school students carry the weight of being obligated to face their responsibilities at home and put their academic life aside. This prevents the 8-10 hours that teenagers deserve, also affecting their academic timeliness.

Students from the iSchool who live uptown or out of Manhattan also find it difficult to be early to school, especially when the weather brings train or bus delays. Sherlyn mentions that transit apps can often be inaccurate and that this school year there have been a lot more delays, especially with trains. “I feel that it messes up a lot of students.” -Sherlyn Mata.

Even when we are on time, leaving our house or taking a train, it makes it even more difficult to make it to school early if almost every form of transport is slower than it should be.

Recent studies have also shown that most high school students do not get the amount of hours they need to sleep. This has also shown to decrease students grades and performance in school.

In 2021, nearly 70% of 9th graders, and 83.5% of 12th graders, failed to get enough sleep. Here we see that high schoolers being late to school don’t only have the excuse of transport delays, but the excuse that their bodies didn’t have it in them to wake up at 5-6 in the morning once more.

In our generation, it is often believed that girls are more prone to be late to school since they pay more attention to detail when it comes to their appearance. Alejandro shares his opinion on the matter and says “Being a boy doesn’t change anything because there are a lot of things that girls do that boys also do. Especially like doing hair but when it comes to makeup and other things it obviously doesn’t apply.”

Whether you are masculine or feminine, there shouldn’t be a standard telling how long you should take in the mornings, but it is a fact that some of us prioritize certain things that others don’t.

Now, “I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it,” says Art Williams.