Our brain needs a break. There are studies that show that we need to give our brain a break. Adults experience stress and get overwhelmed with all the work they do throughout the day. Students as well get stressed with all their school work. Students get homework almost everyday from all their teachers. This causes them to be stressed at a very young age and this can affect their mental health.
When you’re an adult you get a job, find a house, and try to have a sustainable life, you want a great future. But to have that amazing future you wish for you have to work hard. There are times where people work too hard and push past their limits. When you get a job you have back-to-back meetings, you have to find a solution to a problem, you have to help others. But people can get overwhelmed with too much for the brain to process without a break. That is why scientific studies encourage you to take a break of at least 10 minutes after doing something. I know you might not have the time because you have so much in your schedule but at least make an effort to try. If you don’t take breaks, you’ll become overwhelmed and unable to focus. Michael Bohan, a senior director of Microsoft’s Human Factors Engineering group, who oversaw the project says, “Our research shows breaks are important, not just to make us less exhausted by the end of the day, but to actually improve our ability to focus and engage while in those meetings.”
Students have so much work, in addition to being in school 5 days a week for 8 hours they have to do homework from almost every teacher. Also, they have to study for exams and often schools have tests or quizzes after every topic. This can overwhelm students at a very young age. This is not good for their mental health. Kids should be able to have time to enjoy their childhood. They should be able to have time for themselves and not have to sleep late at night because they have so much work to do. As a student I get very stressed and overwhelmed. Besides having to wake up early in the morning to get ready for school, when I get home I eat dinner with my family, take a shower, do all my homework that takes me multiple hours and then have to go to sleep because it’s already late at night. This proves that most children don’t have time for themselves. We need that time to be creative, spend time with family and friends, and just in general have time to rest. Eddy Zhong, a young entrepreneur, once said “There is so much more than one type of intelligence and while school can make you more academically intelligent it is diminishing the children’s creative intelligence.”
In conclusion, every person needs to give the brain a break. Hopefully now the board of education or the bosses of a company can understand the importance of a break. You need that break because if not you won’t be able to stay focused on your studies or in your job. Overall, it is good to not just be academically intelligent but creatively intelligent as well.
Kalinda Pineda – Carmel Catholic High School – DMSF Class of 2029
Photo Credit: ronstik – Adobe Stock