With The Preuss School starting at 8:55 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Fridays starting at 10:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., students don’t have too much time outside of school.

Sixth grade students struggle as they have to be on campus an hour before school and after, since they’re the only grade that are provided with buses. Another reason they’re at Preuss longer is due to the ARC program. The program is strongly encouraged for the 6th graders to help better their education to make up for what could’ve been lost due to COVID. Students also are able to receive extra help in some of their classes with after school tutoring. It’s only for an hour after 4:00 p.m. but public transportation makes students get home around 7 p.m.

With a majority of the Preuss students taking public transportation, students get home from school around 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Preuss students that decide to stay after for either help, are in 6th grade, or for a club, have to get home later. This means that they could be getting home around 7 p.m. and have less time to get their needed 8 hours of sleep. If students have their parents to take them to school everyday, sleeping isn’t much of a problem. The students that do take public transportation, unfortunately, have to wake up earlier so they can make it to school on time.

Mainly Preuss high schoolers don’t have time for outside activities so students finding clubs that are fit for them is amazing. Though, some clubs are also after school for an hour.

“I do a lot of activities like soccer, cross country, volleyball and squash, ” shared Ashley Lopez (‘24), “so I don’t always have as much time as others, but instead I end up falling asleep on the public bus.”

Although students spend a lot of time at the school, students are able to be more connected to their school. Many students claim that while they do a lot of activities and attempt to build up their resumes or education after school, those activities help them when feeling academic stress or even personal problems.

“Since I don’t have as much time outside of school, I decided to just stick with PE with Brazelton to work on myself and stay consistent with my activities.” Brandon De La Cruz (‘26).

Students that lack sleep do tend to do worse in their classes as students may end up falling asleep in class or dozing off. Students not being able to focus in class may miss important things from their teachers or peers which would affect their grades. Lack of sleep can worsen students’ motivation, attitude and energy. Sleep affecting students’ motivation for school can affect them as it could also affect their attitude towards their classes, teachers or peers.

To help students sleep faster, it is recommended to leave all devices alone 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime. Also, white noise also calms individuals to help them sleep better or even music in general. As students already wake up early that take public transportation or 6th graders, waking up earlier is helpful to fall asleep earlier. It’s recommended for kids to take an hour of their day and dedicate it to exercising. It is also important to continue washing the sheets to beds and pillow coverings to remain clean which could also help sleep with the idea of clean sheets. Students could also take power naps in the nurse’s office that’s no longer than 30 minutes. Naps that are longer than 30 minutes will end up making individuals more tired when they wake up instead of energized. This is due to the fact that sleeping longer than 30 minutes will make the brain believe that they are taking a full night’s sleep.