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TALLULAH DOGWILL: Welcome to the podcast that explores all realms of sleep, your routine, schedules, hacks and crazy stories. Today we’re looking at student and faculty members morning routines and how that affects their quality of day. You according to Piedmont, healthcare routines are necessary in order to live the least stressed version of your life possible. They emphasize the importance of good sleep habits, including waking up at the same time every day, while also getting enough sleep the night before in order to feel refreshed and ready for the day ahead to begin, we will get input from sophomore Evie gardener and junior Laura Kimmel about their morning routines. Walk us through your morning routine and what time you wake up at.

EVIE GARDNER: So I wake up at 6:35 but I usually get out of bed at around 6:45 and then I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and then I come back get dressed. I usually go on my phone for like, five to 10 minutes, and then I make my bed and pack up my stuff, and then go downstairs. Sometimes I have fruit, sometimes I don’t, and then I go to school. So how much sleep do you think you get on average every night? Usually seven hours. When I go to bed earlier, that usually means I have more time in the evening, so I’m able to get stuff done. How you feel in the morning, like impacts your ability to do schoolwork, or your like day at school, if it’s a dramatic amount of sleep loss then, yes, usually I’m used to not getting a lot of sleep, so I’m fine having like five or six hours.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: Okay, what is your typical morning routine on a school day?

LAURA KIMMEL: Okay, so I wake up at seven, and then I get out of bed and I wash my face, and I brush my teeth, and then I do my skin care, and then I get dressed, and then I do my makeup and I brush my hair, and then I go downstairs and I fill up my water, and sometimes I eat a banana, but if We don’t have bananas, then I don’t and then I take my vitamins, and then I go to school.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: Do you feel like you’re tired in the morning? And, like, what affects that? Like, how much sleep you get? Like, late start?

LAURA KIMMEL: Yeah, I think it depends on how much sleep I got, like, the night before that night. So it’s like, if I, like, don’t sleep very well, like Tuesday night, then I, like, wake up on Wednesday, and I’m fine. But then, like Wednesday night, even if I sleep well, I wake up and I’m tired on Thursday, so it like, takes a day to affect me. Okay, okay, I see um.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: But do you feel like, like on late starts like, you have more energy, and do you feel like that, like, helps you perform better in school.

LAURA KIMMEL: Yeah, actually, I would say I do, because I think that extra sleep really just helps me, like, be more productive. And I feel like I can be more focused when I’m, like, more well rested.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: So good. Are you ever late to school?

LAURA KIMMEL: Yes, quite a few times. Um, never, like, super late, but I mean, it’s, uh, sometimes I like, lose track of time in the morning, and I then I like, leave my house like, five minutes later. And then, yeah, and sometimes the like, red lights. I get stuck at a lot of red lights, but yeah.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: Do you feel like, if school was shifted to start, like, 30 minutes later, you would have an easier time in the morning?

LAURA KIMMEL: I think I would, yeah, I think I would definitely have like, like, because then I could wake up like, at like 7:20 or 7:30 and I could still do everything, but I just like, have that little extra bit of time, but then I could also, like, if I woke up at 7:20 like, that’s like 20 minutes extra of sleep, but then I have 10 minutes extra than my normal, you know. So I think that would be nice. I would enjoy that.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: Thank you to our students for their overview of their morning routines, giving us an inside review into what a morning of an SPA student looks like. Now we will turn it over to counselor Jake Turnbloom and history teacher Andrea Moerer to give us their insight on how the school should change in order to benefit students.If you were to design your ideal start time or day of school and like when it ends, what would that look like? And what do you think that should be in regards to students mental health?

JAKE TURNBLOOM: Yeah, I mean, I think that boy. So a lot of different school districts are trying new things right now with children’s health, like in the forefront of their brains, like the school district I just came from, really, because I’m new in here for the school district I just came from, really shifted things to where grade schoolers are starting. Their start time is like 7:45-8 a.m. while the upper school kids, they’re starting around 9:30 because they realize that, like, hey, as you’re aging, you’re gonna naturally want to stay up later, and you’re gonna wanna, you know, get up later as well. But it’s really tricky, because a lot of families, a lot of parents, guardians, their work day start at what time, like seven, 8 a.m. yeah, so to get their child, let’s say they’re in grade school, on a bus. I mean, that’s really difficult. So it can’t just be on so it’s got to be a whole societal approach. Like, of course, we want kids to be at their best mentally, you know, and get as much sleep as possible. So you’re balancing that with, like, transportation, yeah, so let’s say, let’s say you’re a single mom with three kids in grade school, and you know the start time for them is going to be at seven, 737 45 or now it’s at 939, like, how are you supposed to do this? Do I need to get, like, a third job so I can, like, it’s just, it’s very difficult to pick the right start start time. So I think that’s why a lot of schools are going to still be at like eight. It’s, it’s hard to create a start time that is going to be healthy and doable for all families. So maybe if we, if spa were have a change, we’d need to also invest in our transportation. Oh, man, there’s going to be no matter what all I know is like if start times change in any school district, you’re going to have irate parents one way or the other. You can’t pick a start time that is going to make everybody happy, because naturally, some people like even students, some people are morning people. There are. There are those random teenagers who could pop up at 630 in the morning and be singing show tunes and they’re so happy, while others, you know, people wake up at 630 and they’re ready to stab people because it’s 630 Yeah, you’re never gonna make everybody happy with this. But scientifically speaking, teenagers, they’re gonna want to stay up a little bit later, and they’re going to want to sleep in a little bit later.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: Thank you so much.

ANDREA MOERER: I will say I’m very interested in evidence-based practices, and so I have read up a fair amount on what the ideal school day time is, and for teenagers, the ideal school day starts at 10 a.m. and then ends in the early evening, because a teen brain gets tired between 11 and 12 and really needs eight to nine hours of sleep. And I get real upset that systems don’t have that be the guiding rationale for schedules. Rather, we talk about sports, or we talk about work, or we talk about transportation, and all of those things can be adjusted. We should be working on what keeps kids healthy and awake and able to learn the best.

TALLULAH DOGWILL: Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast Running on Empty. Make sure to watch out for the next episode, hosted by Alyda Overgaard, about the pros and cons of doing an all-nighter.

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