Humans need at least seven hours of sleep to function properly. According to sleepfoundation.org, only 15 percent of students get eight hours of sleep on school nights. Why is that? Many researchers believe it’s the amount of homework students get that makes them stay up later at night.

In order to succeed in school, students must do their homework. How much homework is too much? According to Census.gov, 57 percent of students surveyed do after school activities. Students do not have time to go to their activities, spend time with family, go to school, do homework and get seven hours of sleep.

“Three hours, not that you’d have that every night, but I think that would be the appropriate time students get for homework,” Tracy Capecci, a geometry teacher at Neshaminy, said.

Capecci gives homework almost every night, but it is just a few problems out of the math textbook or a worksheet.

“I think about one hour is the appropriate amount of homework for students,” Kim Aubrey, an English teacher at Neshaminy, said. “If they had around 15 or 20 minutes of homework in each subject, that would be appropriate.”

Aubrey rarely gives any worksheets or assignments as homework, but she does expect students to read every night for 20 minutes.

Rachael Kohler, a freshman at Neshaminy is a student athlete. She has softball practices five times a week and also has to juggle school work.

“It’s very hard to balance everything between school and softball,” Kohler said. “Some nights I get like five or six hours of sleep because I’m up doing homework.”

Of course homework has many benefits and can help students grow academically.

“It’s easy to follow along in the classroom, but when you get home, students can forget what they learned,” Capecci said. “Homework is testing their knowledge and will help them remember and refresh their brains.”

But too much homework helps no one. When students get seven or more hours of sleep, they are more awake for school, making them ready to learn, pay more attention, get better grades, and focus on the homework they get. Students who have a lot of activities and homework don’t always have time to balance both, and on top of that get enough sleep.

“I think homework is a good thing, but teachers need to realize that we have eight other classes as well and we have work for them too, so if they could limit the amount of work given, that would be so much easier for the students,” Kohler said.