You decide to stay up late on a school night and wake up more tired than normal in the morning. Whether you miss the bus or are tired from staying up late the night before, you find yourself tardy for first period. It’s happened to most everyone before.

Some students tend to be late for their first-period class when they have a bad sleep schedule.

“I go to bed between 10 p.m. or extremely late,” said freshman Jacob Nwokenta. “There’s no in-between.”

Nwokenta acknowledges there is a very normal pattern of him going to bed quite late, and his peers know about his staying up too late.

“There is my friend Brady in my first hour who sees me late all the time, sometimes laughs, but he knows that I go to sleep late,” Nwokenta said. 

Nwokenta isn’t the only student who has issues with getting to bed early. Many students also struggle with getting to bed at a reasonable time. 

According to the National Institute of Health, settling into bed later in the night results in arriving late to school. 376 Loy Norrix students were tardy for first hour just last week, according to assistant principal Andrew Muysenburg.

Freshman Gus Solitro also struggles with arriving to first hour on time. However, he doesn’t think his constant tardiness to first hour affects his relationship with his teacher. 

“It isn’t really affected because it’s rare that I’m ever 20 minutes late to class,” said Solitro. “He [my teacher] doesn’t really ask why I’m late. He just specifically asks if I’m okay.” 

Student attendance is important to teachers, but the lack of attendance in students doesn’t directly correlate to the student-teacher relationship. 

“Tardiness shouldn’t affect how I relate with a student,” English teacher Joe Kitzman said. 

The importance of students’ sleep habits and tardiness shows the need for a greater awareness of the impact of adequate rest on academic success and overall well-being.