Facing the Burnout, Feeling the Full-Time
- Increscent Editors
- Mar 15, 2022
- 2 min read

By Aurora Miller
Sports Editor
January 2022
Wake up, get ready, go to school, rush to work, do homework, fall asleep. This routine has been drilled into our heads since we officially welcomed the whole student body back to school in person this fall. As life begins to shift back to a sense of “normalcy”, many students are returning back to sports, clubs, and jobs feeling more tired and stressed than ever before.
History teacher Dustin Rondeau said, “I definitely see student exhaustion throughout the day, and I think that it's more prevalent than in previous years. The exhaustion can be physical, but I also think a lot of it is emotional exhaustion.”
As a consequence of the constant exertion, students rated their tiredness as an 8 on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not exhausted at all and 10 being completely exhausted. They also averaged around four to six hours of sleep a night. This is incredibly low when compared to the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep needed for adolescent growth to take place.
“There is no motivation to do anything,” Maritza Santiago, a junior voiced.
This feeling bleeds into academics, as with around an hour of homework each night, students are finding it much easier to get behind on assignments, increasing their stress overall and limiting their productivity.
Brooklyn Westbury, another junior said, “Compared to last year, the amount of work is daunting. We used to only have a couple assignments for a class every week, but now we get a couple every day, while having a full school schedule and outside activities.”
Other students also express how overwhelming it is to be back in school full time and readjust to having a full workload after adapting to the more individually based learning that took place in online school last year. Teachers, too, have recognized challenges students are facing with readapting.
“It seems that students are much less likely to participate in class than ever before,” said social studies teacher Samantha Hoppe. “Specifically, in required courses, the low level of participation and students who are trying to sleep through class is more than I've experienced before.”
With the lack of sleep, productivity, and time students are truly feeling the pressures of staying on top of assignments and responsibilities, only further draining and putting them at risk for general burnout. Even though many students are deeply involved in school and extracurricular activities, it is also important to ask for help and think of yourself. Take a mental health day, ask for extensions, and think about you.
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