Key Points
- Students in their final year of high school need as much sleep as those in their first, experts say.
- Sleep deprivation can have a flow on impact on both mental and physical health.
- A study of thousand of students found half had trouble sleeping as a direct result of stress about study.
Year 12 final exams are only weeks away for students across Australia — and concerns have been raised about the impact stress is having on high school students across Australia.
Stress is impacting the sleep and well-being of year 12 students, and the issue appears to be getting worse, new research suggests.
Student Prisha Aravindran said she's been using caffeine for late-night study sessions, which has left her nauseous and unable to concentrate.
"I went through a lot of irregularity in my sleep," she said. "I'd sleep late at night, and then I'd end up taking massive naps during the day which really messed with my productivity levels and my focus when I was awake."
Year 12 students require just as much rest as their year 7 counterparts, ideally nine hours a night, doctors say. Source: Getty / bymuratdeniz
ReachOut, a youth mental health organisation, surveyed a thousand students aged between 16 and 25 and found half have trouble as a direct result of stress about study.
Year 12 students are especially impacted, said Jackie Hallan, ReachOut's director of service.
"We know that exams, whenever they occur, can impact your mental health and well-being," she said.
"Young people we hear feel like it’s going to impact their choices of getting into university or TAFE, and their future career options."
Year 12 students require just as much rest as their year 7 counterparts, ideally nine hours a night, doctors say.
Dr Chris Seton is a paediatric and adolescent sleep expert at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney.
Seton said that schools have not yet caught up with what is known about the sleep needs of older teenagers.
He said the sleep needs of those in year seven are the same as those in their final year of school, but that didn't "fit with societal norms".
Students across Australia are currently doing final preparations for Year 12 exams. Source: Getty / Alys Tomlinson
"And this is part of the problem with upper high school and the reason that kids in upper high school get sleep deprived — they don’t get the opportunity to get their nine hours."
Seton said that problems with sleep can create a vicious cycle.
"So sleep deprivation in teenagers has a lot of mental health and physical health impacts," he said.
"Mentally it depresses a teenager’s mood and heightens the likelihood of anxiety; it decreases their ability to learn because they can’t remember things, and it has flow-on effects on their behaviour.
"So things like cyber-bullying are a lot more common when a teenager is sleep deprived."
But it’s not just stress impacting sleep.
School Captain Beatrice Jusuf said some students have extra responsibilities, with perhaps too many extra-curricular activities that cut into morning sleep or push study sessions late into the night.
Beatrice Jusuf says juggling study with other responsibilities can be challenging at times. Source: SBS News
"And also, as a school captain, there’s a lot of event organising.
"So there’s a lot of pressure to try to keep up with studies as well as be on top of all the events."
For year 12 parent Arti Gopikrishnan, it's also about putting things into perspective.
She says she likes to remind her son that while his exams are important, they are not life-defining.
"This doesn't guarantee success in life," she said. "This is not the ultimate test or anything; so encourage them to do their personal best and go to bed on time and stick to good habits."
