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You used to get in trouble if the teacher caught you napping in high school. Now...it's a class?
A new course at Mansfield Senior High School in Mansfield, Ohio, is aiming to teach students how to get better quality sleep.
“It might sound odd to say that kids in high school have to learn the skills to sleep,” says Mansfield health teacher Tony Davis, "But you’d be shocked how many just don’t know how to sleep."
And Mansfield isn't the only school doing it; schools across the country are including lessons on how to sleep in their existing health classes.
Studies show teenagers are more sleep deprived than ever, and experts think it could be playing into a growing youth mental health crisis and other problems plaguing schools, including behavioral and attendance issues.
According to recent studies, teens are getting as little as 60% of the sleep they need; adolescents need between eight and 10 hours of sleep each night, but nearly 80% of teens get less than that, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with most teens today averaging six hours of sleep.