<p>My junior year was pretty identical as well-normal days would include 3 hours of sleep (terrible, I know!) I had to drink protein shakes every morning in order to keep me going. Its surprising how full they can keep you! Naps are also a good idea as long as they don’t become too long.</p>
<p>I read the sleep studies. I was thinking the same thing - it’s natural for teenagers to shift to not getting to sleep until after midnight. Then it is hard to get up in the morning. </p>
<p>But I would suggest stepping back and looking at the big picture. Look at all the “stuff” our poor kids have to do in a day. Do they really need chores on top of that? I let the chores go when my daughter was a junior and senior. I did them. I wasn’t nearly as busy or exhausted or stressed. I don’t even think she realized that she didn’t have any chores, she had so much else to do. Now when she comes home from college on breaks I usually give her a few days with no chores and then start asking for help with dishes, or I ask her to clean up after herself. I don’t do her laundry though. She complained about it once, maybe twice, I told her she was welcome to use my machine and my soap and do laundry whenever she needed it.</p>
<p>From today’s WaPo: [Montgomery</a> petition to let high-schoolers sleep longer signed by thousands - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/montgomery-petition-to-let-high-schoolers-sleep-longer-signed-by-thousands/2012/11/02/805ccfb8-20fa-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html]Montgomery”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/montgomery-petition-to-let-high-schoolers-sleep-longer-signed-by-thousands/2012/11/02/805ccfb8-20fa-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_story.html)</p>
<p>There have been many similar articles for years.</p>
<p>My son is the same age and has pretty much the same schedule. It was rough during tennis season because he had tennis every day after school and didn’t get home until 5:30 or 6. But, that’s over now, until track season. Currently, he wakes up easily in the morning, eats a snack when he gets home from school, takes a nap some days, starts dinner (yes, that’s his chore and it allows us to eat at a normal time and it will make him a fantastic husband some day). After we eat dinner, we usually watch the news together and then he starts on homework. He doesn’t balk at chores, although I’m flexible with when he does most of them. I ask him at the beginning of the week when he will get a chance to mow the lawn. He takes the trash out on his way out the door for school on Wednesday. I do laundry, but give him his folded pile to put away. He starts dinner most nights, as I noted earlier. If there are other things I need help with, I ask him when he can help me rather than expecting him to drop whatever he is doing and do it right then. I hold him to the time/day he gives me. It works for us. </p>
<p>I will qualify the “starting dinner”. I do most of the cooking on Sunday. I make meatballs, a meatloaf, taco meat, breaded chicken, etc. on Sunday mornings. Together, we make a menu for the week, working around his EC schedule. When he starts dinner, he will put the meatballs and sauce on the stove a couple hours before I get home so it’s nicely simmered. I call him when I’m halfway home and he starts cooking the pasta. On taco night, he starts the rice he likes and I cut up the tomatoes, onions, lettuce, etc. We warm the meat up while the rice is cooking. Chicken parmesan night, he takes the breaded chicken I made and puts the cheese and sauce on and puts it in the oven. We have a great system and we can eat much earlier in the evening this way, before night time activities. We set the table together and put away the leftovers/clear the table together. Team work 
</p>
<p>He asked me to teach him how to do laundry so he can do it on occasion when needed. </p>
<p>My goal with raising him was that he’d be a thoughtful husband who shared in the household duties…lol. Someday, his wife will thank me!</p>
<p>I have a son with similar habits and he is only in 8th grade! We solved a big part of the problem by having him do the bulk of his homework at the school library after sports practice. The snack bar is still open, and it avoids him coming home and getting distracted by TV, the fridge, facebook et al. Realize this may not work for a high schooler, but we just had to put our son in an environment where he could work more efficiently. He was motivated to get as much done as possible, so he could go home! Most written work is completed by the time he arrives home, and he usually just has to study for a test or a quiz. And he does so in the bathtub!</p>
<p>I was always amazed how late some parents let their kids go to bed starting in grade school. These kids looked like zombies in the morning and definitely did not have enough sleep on most nights. It comes down to lazy parenting as it’s always harder to enforce rules…much easier to let kids just do what they want.</p>
<p>[Sleep</a> deprivation may be undermining teen health](<a href=“http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/sleepteen.aspx]Sleep”>Sleep deprivation may be undermining teen health)</p>
<p>[Sleep-deprived</a> teenagers may risk long-term damage to wiring of the brain | Mail Online](<a href=“Sleep-deprived teenagers may risk long-term damage to wiring of the brain | Daily Mail Online”>Sleep-deprived teenagers may risk long-term damage to wiring of the brain | Daily Mail Online)</p>
<p>I showed studies like this to my D1 when she was staying up too late. She found that by putting an emphasis on getting enough sleep, the work took less time and she was able to accomplish more. </p>
<p>Agree with those who relieve juniors and seniors of chores. Their time is more precious than yours. </p>
<p>I’d also like to point out that taking a brutal course load that causes chronic sleep deprivation does not always result in ivy league admissions and success in life. It often results depression, burnout and sometimes permanent loss of cognitive function. </p>
<p>Some kids CAN take a whopping load and get enough sleep. Most can’t. It’s counterproductive to push them to try. High schools should be more lenient with letting kids who can’t handle it drop down to lower levels without making them feel worthless.</p>
<p>I think the sleep studies are culturally biased. My relatives who farm laugh at them, that’s for sure; if you are doing real work, you don’t get into the crazy sleep cycles. Canadian school teachers and high school students I know think the way American teenagers structure their homework and sleep is ludicrous. I can think of other examples.</p>
<p>Haven’t been a parent so can be compassionate but not that helpful. When I was a boarding school dorm master, however, there were lights out and they were real. The network was off. Once the darkness and quiet were enforced, after even a short time, kids could feel that they were exhausted and they slept. Electronics have changed lives to the point that we now think it is something normal.</p>