Sleep

           This is a subject that is near and dear to me. I, like most high school students, enjoy the times when I get to sleep. I sleep in whenever I get the chance. Sometimes I wonder if to much sleep can be an issue, but I usually talk myself out of that idea. Sleep is important for our bodies, so they can rest both physically and mentally. Without sleep we wouldn't last very long but, as the saying goes, to much of anything can be bad.

                If one sleeps to much or to often, they could end up really hurting their body. Not considering the fact that you wouldn't get any physical activity if you were sleeping all the time, your body doesn't react well to excess sleep. When the body experiences to much sleep it can completely change the course of a day. Your body may be hungry more often throughout the day due to the fact that you suppressed this hunger the whole time you were asleep. It is actually very important to keep a constant sleeping schedule, it can affect things like your weight and blood pressure. It is actually more important to be consistent than it is to get the "magic" number of hours sleeping.

                  Being a high school student this can be hard sometimes. Homework that you stay up late doing, away games, matches, meets. Sometimes its just not possible to get to bed at the same time every night. I don't think it's really possible if you are a multi-sport athlete, however you can do things to help. Sleep is very important, but to go along with that its important to eat right. Putting the right things in your body helps out a lot.  If you are constantly putting bad food into your body it can make you feel tired, this can go hand in hand with sleep (I often do this too much). If you feel tired you might try sleeping to help, but really that isn't the problem.
                 Now don't get me wrong eating right and not sleeping is definitely not a good idea either. You have to find a happy medium, you can certainly have a piece of pie every once in a while, just don't over do it. Same with sleeping, you can sleep in on the weekends if you need it, but you probably don't need to take a 3 or 4 hour nap everyday after school. Just keep a good balance, when you can, and you probably wont have to worry about any negative affects of sleep. There are certainly times when you should be sleeping more than normal, like if you are sick. This is just something to think about, in the end you should trust your own judgment. I'm going to go sleep right now.