Stress in School: Impact on Student Well-being

Stress and Its Undeniable Impact on Student Life and Sleep Patterns

There are many ways in which stress can affect the lives of students and their ability to perform well in school. If a high school student ever says that they do not feel stressed, then they are lying. Nowadays, there is pressure on students and younger kids such as teens, which is unrealistic to the real things that matter in life but, for some reason, seem to take over the lives of many, and many take it too seriously. Trying to find the time for spending quality time with friends and family, activities that are extracurricular, and studying daily creates a lot of stress and pressure on the person to find the time to do all of this without failing classes or losing friends or not being able to find the time to do what they love outside of school.

A big factor in a student’s life, which has a lot of responsibility for how well they are performing in school and functioning during the day, is sleep. Sleep is so important for every person out there, and when a person does not receive enough sleep, it sure does throw them off. Some people can survive the day with little sleep, but for others, that is completely different. A proper amount of sleep, which is said to be 8 hours at night for teens, is critical for a person’s ability to focus and memorize, so when a student is staying up too late and then waking up very early for school, it can affect how well they retain the information which they are learning during the day.

Stress in Academia: From Classroom Behavior to Academic Performance

In school, there are many cases and incidents where people are bullied as well as start becoming bullied every single day. What may be one of the answers to this? Stress. Stress is known to increase how angry as well as irritable a person feels. This may increase the chances of a person becoming a bully. They may just be trying to take some anger out, but it is still wrong in every way. Not only might students who feel as though they are stressed out be bullies to their peers, but they may also be disrespectful towards staff, such as their teachers, or not be able to follow school rules. They may overall be disruptive towards the class setting.

So many students want to have perfect grades and perfect scores on everything. This is reality for many, but it can surely stop being reality when a person feels stressed out. When a person can not sleep well, their focus is thrown off, and then when their focus is thrown off, they can not learn well, and then when they can not learn well, they may not retain anything. This can overall lead to failing a test or not getting the highest grade on a homework assignment, and this can all be blamed upon all the things that lead up to this due to stress.

It is easy to say that when a student is stressed out, they may feel the negative effects on their days in school. Something such as teachers creating a type of environment that is calmer and more peaceful for the students is something that can help to keep the students focused and on task without feeling a great amount of stress during their school day. A lot of people, in fact, feel that the stress is too much to handle, which can lead to them feeling that they are not capable of the work. This can actually lead to skipping class or even dropping out of school, so finding different techniques to use throughout the day to calm down and reduce the amount of stress that is being felt can drastically change a student’s ability to learn and feel less stressed out.

References

1. American Psychological Association (APA). (2014). Stress in America: Are teens adopting adults’ stress habits?
2. National Sleep Foundation. (2015). Sleep in America Poll: Sleep and Time Management.
3. Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer Publishing Company.
4. Perry, B. D. (2001). The neurodevelopmental impact of violence in childhood. In Textbook of child and adolescent forensic psychiatry (pp. 221-238). American Psychiatric Pub.