It was 3:45 a.m., and I finally admitted I wasn't going to get back to sleep. Insomnia has troubled me for the past few years. All part of getting older, I suppose.

But it wasn't my own sleeplessness I found myself thinking about in the dark hours of the morning. Instead, I found myself thinking about the teenagers in my high school classes. I've been substituting for a couple years now, and in almost every class, there's someone sleeping. Sometimes these are kids trying to avoid classwork, but most often they are soundly asleep, sometimes even snoring. Out of compassion, I waken them gently, quietly inquiring, "Would you like to go to the nurse's office to lie down for a while?"

It would be better for them to skip a class period and get some sleep, I think, returning to the rest of the school day refreshed and ready to learn. However, not one student has ever taken me up on my offer.

Those with a jaded opinion of lazy teenagers might not have much sympathy for these kids, but I do. Partly, I suppose, I am predisposed to sympathy, because I am usually sleep deprived myself.

As excited as I have been about starting a new career in teaching, the one thing I do not like is the early hours. Most high school classes start before 8 a.m.  Classes at the school where I'll be student teaching this fall start at 7:25 a.m.  Which means that all of us -- students and teachers alike -- must get up around 5 or 5:30 a.m., depending on travel time.

Insomniacs do a lot of calculating related to sleep and wakefulness. It's part of what keeps us awake in a desperate attempt to fall back to sleep. Counting sheep leads to counting many other things.

Think of this, though: The average adult needs just over eight hours of sleep a night, while the average teenager needs just over nine hours of sleep. In order to get a full night's sleep before reporting to work on time, I have to get to bed about 9 p.m.  A teenager would have to get to bed about 8 p.m. Now, how realistic is that? 

Even for high schoolers with iron discipline, the demands of work (many have part-time jobs out of necessity, especially in these challenging economic times), homework and after-school activities make this a fantasy bedtime hour.

That means many -- if not most -- teenagers are shuffling through their day in a sleep-deprived haze. You know how short-tempered you can be when you haven't gotten enough sleep? Now think of how adolescents are still learning how to get their emotions under control and how sleep deprivation may play a role in misbehavior at school.

You know how you have a hard time thinking clearly and remembering things when you haven't gotten enough sleep? Now think about how sleep deprivation probably affects student achievement in high school.

You know how people aren't safe drivers when they're sleep deprived?  Now think about this: According to the Centers for Disease Control, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for American teens. 

You know how the dropout rate has been increasing for American teenagers? At 3:45 a.m., I found myself wondering how many chronically sleep deprived kids are struggling and failing to learn, then finally give up and drop out.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, "The high school graduation rate is a barometer of the health of American society and the skill level of its workforce. ... In the first half of the twentieth century, growth in high school graduation was the driving force behind increased college enrollments.  The decline in high school graduation since 1970 (for cohorts born after 1950) has flattened college attendance and attendance and completion rates as well as growth in the skill level of the U.S. workforce. To increase the skill levels of its future workforce, America needs to confront a large and growing dropout problem."¹  

That's what I was thinking about at 3:45 a.m. And I think it's something that should be worrying more of us adults in the dark hours of the morning. 

Addendum: a few hours after first posting this, I thought better about that last line. It's a bit of overheated rhetoric, don't you think? If truth be told, there were additional reasons why I was having trouble sleeping last night. Had I remembered to pay my credit card bill in a timely manner? I hadn't finished filling out that job application yet. Are we going to be able to find a nanny before I go back to work on August 16th? How will we be able to afford paying for the nanny, our daughter's new braces (how painful will they be?), the credit card bill, the septic system and foundation repairs ... 

[1] http://www.nber.org/reporter/2008number1/heckman.html