At 1:45 a.m, junior Annabelle Alicki is still awake. Her laptop screen glows in the dark room, as she finishes a history assignment due the next morning. Next to her is a half-empty energy drink and a stack of textbooks she hasn’t touched yet. In five hours, her alarm will wake her up for school. 

When the alarm wakes me after barely five hours of sleep, maybe you can’t even open youeyes. You don’t want to even think about getting up. You set another alarm for 15 minutes realizing you might be late, but don’t even care today. It feels like just one minute passes and the alarm goes off again. You sit in bed trying to wake myself up, and the first thing you do is go on my phone. The screen is glowing brightly while I scroll for another 10 minutes.

“I know I should sleep more,” Alicki said. “But between homework, sports, and other things that come up in life, it’s hard to.”

Annabelle’s routine sounds similar to many students. Across high schools, sleep deprivation has become common. With busy schedules, lots of work and studying, technology distractions, and work, many teenagers are running on a lot less sleep than doctors recommend.

Being in class, you usually see a few kids with either an energy drink or coffee, which is looked at as normal now, but is actually hurting sleep. Energy drinks and coffee are linked to insomnia, sleep disturbances, shorter sleep time, and poor sleep quality. 

When someone drinks one in the morning, it increases stress and it can cause energy crashes later, which makes longer days much harder when the caffeine wears off. If a student were to drink caffeine around 3 o’clock to help with after school activities or homework it can cause effectiveness in your sleep, making it much harder to go to bed, and teens are proven to be more sensitive towards caffeine.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenagers should get about 8–10 hours of sleep per night, but studies show most high school students get less. For many students, late nights and early mornings have become normal.

For Alicki, a typical school night involves juggling multiple responsibilities.

After school, she attends soccer practice until around 5:30 p.m. Then comes dinner, homework, studying for upcoming tests, and often sitting on her phone for hours.

 “Sometimes I don’t even start homework until 9 p.m” Annabelle said. She estimates she gets five to six hours of sleep on average.

By the time it is morning, she says she often feels exhausted before the day even begins. 

“I wake up tired every single day,” Alicki said. 

Annabelle isn’t alone, many students say their schedules make getting enough sleep difficult.

Maeve Cimo said balancing schoolwork with extracurricular activities often keeps her awake late into the night. She says she usually sleeps about six hours a night, sometimes less during busy weeks. 

“During class I notice how bad sleep makes it hard to pay attention,” she said.

Another factor contributing to sleep deprivation is technology. Phones, computers, and social media can keep students awake long after they intend to sleep. 

“Sometimes I look at the time and see I’ve been on my phone much longer than I thought,” junior Cort Nelson said.

Many students say they feel pressure to stay connected with friends online, even late at night. “With my friends texting me it’s hard to just ignore it,” Alicki said.

The blue light from screens can also make it harder for the brain to get tired, which may delay sleep even further.

For many students, academic expectations are a major reason they sacrifice sleep.

Junior Cort Nelson says the pressure to maintain good grades can make sleep feel like a lower priority. 

“Teachers assign a lot of work, and if you’re taking honors or AP classes it adds up fast, sometimes you just have to stay up late to get everything done,” he said.“You stay up late to finish work, but then you’re tired the next day and it’s harder to focus.” 

Sleep deprivation doesn’t just make students tired. It can affect concentration, mood, and overall health. Students often report feeling more stressed, irritable, or unfocused after nights with little sleep. For some students the lack of sleep also affects their mental well-being. 

“Everything feels more overwhelming when you’re tired,” Alicki said. 

Others say managing their schedules better can make a difference.

Emma Mahoney says she has begun spreading assignments across several days instead of leaving everything for the last minute.

“It doesn’t always work,” she said. “But when it does, I definitely get more sleep.”

Sleep deprivation has quickly become one of the most common struggles among high school students. Between academics, extracurricular activities, social lives, and technology, many teens feel like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

“Everyone I know is tired all the time,” she said. “It’s kind of just part of being a student now.”

As students continue to juggle demanding schedules, the question remains whether schools and communities will find ways to help teenagers get the rest they need.

Until then, many students will keep setting their alarms early, even after nights that end far too late for class.