"Don't Sleep, I'll Teach You How to Sleep Properly"... This Added as a Regular Subject in a US High School

A New Course on "How to Sleep" Introduced at a Massachusetts High School
Most Students Stay Up Late Due to Social Networking and Group Chats

Reference photo to aid understanding of the article. Photo by Asia Economy DB

A high school located in Massachusetts, USA, has introduced a regular course titled 'How to Sleep.' This is due to the fact that many teenagers stay awake late into the night because of adolescent biological rhythms and social networking services (SNS).

According to the Associated Press on the 16th (local time), the new subject at Mansfield High School addresses a topic that teenagers nationwide are struggling with: how to get sleep. Currently, many American teenagers have difficulty sleeping. Most scroll through TikTok late at night or chat in group messages with friends, and when they arrive at school, they slump over their desks and take naps.

Therefore, Mansfield High School has included the newly announced sleep education curriculum as a mandatory part of the state-required high school health classes. Tony Davis, a health teacher at Mansfield, said, "It may sound strange to say that high school students need to learn how to sleep, but you would be surprised at how many students don’t know how to sleep."

It is not unusual for teenagers to go to bed late due to adolescent biological rhythms, but research shows that recent teenagers suffer from sleep deprivation more than ever, which can lead to other issues such as mental health crises and attendance problems.

Dennis Pope, a senior lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Education, stated, "You can see kids asleep at any high school in the United States. Whether on their desks, in the yard, on benches, or on sofas provided for napping at school, kids are exhausted."

Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), teenagers need 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night for brain and body development. However, since 2007, the amount of sleep teenagers get has steadily decreased, with about 80% of teenagers getting less than the recommended amount, and the current average sleep time for teenagers is only about 6 hours.