In a survey of 75 Langley students, only 23 claimed to get an average of 8 hours of sleep a night.  This means only 31 % of students at Langley who are averaging enough sleep.  That is not enough. 

And added to that, according to the National Sleep Foundation, many teens think that sleeping late on weekends “makes up” for a loss of sleep. But to the contrary, it actually confuses your biological clock and can negatively affect the quality of your sleep in general.  

“I know I don’t get enough sleep.  But I have so much school work and activities, there is nothing I can do about it,” said junior Audrey McNicholas. 

That is not the sort of outlook students should be forced to take. A sleep deprived teenager drives the same as someone with a blood alcohol content of .08 %, according to the National Sleep Foundation- which is illegal for adults in the state of Virginia.  That is not an attitude students can have.

Since I am a junior, I know the kind of stress and work load students are under.  However, the government and students need to work together to try to reduce the severity of teen lack of sleep.  Either by changing the hours of school, sports practice or working with teachers to reduce work load we need to do something.