After eating a full meal at lunch, and getting full, you go to your next hour, U.S History. It gets warm, and the teacher is talking about World War II. You decide to put your head down, and next thing you know, the bell is ringing. 

According to, Fractions4Kids “sleeping in class is caused by several reasons that may originate from the classroom itself.”

“I have a hard time [staying awake] plus I don’t like my 1st hour, geometry. I don’t pay that much attention, so I sleep often,” said sophomore Martinez Adamariz.

Oftentimes, students don’t care about the class that they’re in, so they just end up sleeping. 

“I don’t really care about world history. I don’t like it, and I have really bad grades in school right now because of sleeping.” said Adamariz. 

Teachers have their own ways of handling sleeping in class. For example, Government and Politics teacher, Jay Peterson, tries to talk to the students who are repeatedly sleeping in his class.

“My first reaction is just anger, because I’m not just not doing this to get paid, I’m talking to my students because I want to share things that they want to know,” said Peterson.

According to The New York Times, “15 to 25% of kids and teens struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep on a regular basis. During the COVID Pandemic, students attended online school much later than physical school. Waking up at 8:00 may have gotten students used to sleeping in.” 

“I sleep around 7-8 hours a day, but I don’t feel like I get enough sleep. I go to bed around 11:30 and get up at 6:30. I also have ADHD and low blood sugar,” said Adamariz.

Yet, teachers understand why some students sleep in their classes. 

“Despite certain perceptions that students who are very tired sleep all day,” said Peterson, “I wouldn’t say a lot of students [sleep]. My room is warm sometimes, and I think that makes it harder to stay awake. I understand, the afternoon classes, like the 5th hour, people are tired.” 

But, when the COVID-19 pandemic started to end, life was starting to be normal. Many students feel they are still adjusting. But according to Peterson, sleeping is not any worse than it ever has been. 

“I don’t see it happening any more or any less. When we came back from COVID everyone was confused, so maybe it was a problem a year back, but I think now it is about the same,” said Peterson. “They have very busy schedules with jobs, family, and school. I would think it is that some students are just struggling mentally and sleep in order to clock out of a lesson.