A huge number of students in South Korea lack enough sleep. They tend to stay up until late at night and don’t get their needed sleep, which is 6 to 9 hours, due to their heavy school and extra-academic works. It is recently a serious concern since such an issue will potentially harm them.
To start with, the biggest problem that students will experience due to lack of sleep is health problems. If students don’t get a required amount of sleep time, they often experience extreme mental and physical fatigue and difficulty in concentration. Moreover, if such symptoms continue consistently, there is a huge possibility of having a huge health problem or disease. According to Sang Hoon Kim, a physical education and health teacher in Yongsan, there are lots of complications that teenagers can suffer from a lack of sleep, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or obesity.
Min Woo Kim, a high school student in Songdo, said “I always feel very tired when I don’t get enough sleep the night before. I often lose focus while I am in school and sometimes I even doze off during class. I know that going to bed early is a good thing for me and I always want to do so, but I can’t when I have a huge test or assignment due the next day.” From this, it is clear that students are aware of harmful effects of lack of sleep, but their workload doesn’t let them get enough sleep.
It can be easily said that students should just simply manage their time efficiently and go to bed early. However, their lack of sleep is understandable when its main reason is their huge workload which they are not able to control. This issue should not be underestimated, and all schools, parents, and students should try to find a way to ease this so that students can have healthier school life.
![Many students who lack enough sleep often doze off during class. [Source: www.medscape.com]](http://www.jstudentboard.com/reporter/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/11-29-teen.jpg)
[Source: www.medscape.com]
