Have you ever wondered if your late practices are worth destroying your sleep schedule, performance, and health? The answer is no, it is not worth risking. Late night sports practices are affecting teens and kids under 18 significantly. Getting 7 or fewer hours of sleep because of practices needs to stop.
According to John Hopkins Medicine, bad sleep for kids can give them behavior issues, emotional health risks, obesity, and memory loss, and many other important issues that can cause kids to have bad health issues that need to be fixed. This is why it’s important to make sure that you are getting enough sleep. These reasons show why they also need to ban late practices for kids.
Imagine waking up for school at 6:30 and leaving at 2:30. Just when you think you have some time to rest, you need to get ready for practice. Most practices end at 8:30 pm or later, leaving kids hardly any time to get ready for bed and sleep.
For example, after practice ends at 8:30 pm, your coach talks to the team till around 9:00 pm. You leave the practice and get home around 9:30. By the time you eat, shower, and get all ready for bed, it is around 10:30. But oh wait, I have homework! After everything, you get in bed around 11:30 just to wake up around 6:00. According to a 7th-grade student at Rio Norte Junior High, Vivian Gearhart, “As someone who gets home at 10 o’clock every night, and has to do homework, shower, and blow-dry my hair. I am not getting to bed until like 12:30 am, and it is hard to wake up for the next morning just to do it all over again.”
According to skierscribbler.com, “Athletes can expect to stay an extra fifteen minutes at least. Students get home at about 10 pm on nights when they have late practice. Then they need to finish their homework.
“If I don’t have homework, I go to bed as soon as I get home and shower, like 11:30,” Sophomore soccer player Karina De Leon said. “If I have homework, I go to sleep around 1:00 am.”
Getting only six to seven hours of sleep is horrible for a kid. The average kid should get 8-10 hours of sleep minimum.” Getting 8-10 hours is good for kids because it helps their bodies grow faster and healthier.
You should also not go to sports practice late and get bad sleep, because it can affect your daily life. It can give you a short attention span, and in some extreme cases, it can give you depression. All these reasons are happening to kids that need to be stopped.
Overall, late-night practices are mentally and physically destroying the lives of kids 18 and under, and this needs to stop. Between struggles in normal life activities, mental health, sports, and school practices that go till late are very unhealthy and need to end earlier.