Attending a new school can be scary and uneasy, especially when you don’t know anything about the place. High school can be difficult to adjust to.

Classes become more demanding, extracurriculars take up more time, and you have to make new friends to talk to.

A key element to success at Central Catholic is not just brutish studying, but rather, an organized life outside of school, especially in the morning.

This guide will serve to help those who struggle with early morning and preparing for school on time. Take it from someone who has to wake up at 4:55 AM for practice every day.

The Night Before:

It is essential that you finish your homework and studying the day BEFORE it is due.

Do not rely on quickly finishing it in homeroom or on the ride to school.

Always try to finish your homework before you need to get the bed, make sure to put the necessary notebooks, folders, and materials back into your backpack, and then gather anything else you need for school the next day, like your ID, glasses, AirPods, etc.

Always plan ahead and have an ideal time for when you would like to get to sleep. For me, it takes about 15 minutes to get everything ready for the next day, so I always start preparing 15 minutes prior to when I want to be in bed.

8 hours of sleep is ideal, 7 is okay, 6 is poor and anything less than 6 is bad and unhealthy. I cannot stress enough how important sleep is for the teenage body. Next, set an alarm for about 30 minutes before you have to leave.

Good Habits:

Do not sleep with your phone next to you. Staying up late browsing through TikTok or Instagram is tempting and will interrupt your sleep.

If you use your phone before bed, make sure to have the blue light filter turned on.

Unnatural light from your phone can make you take longer to fall into a state of deep sleep, possibly waking you up or making you feel more tired when you wake up in the morning.

Optional: One suggestion I would make is to set your clothes and anything you may need for practice out. It saves time in the morning that would have been spent scrambling for a shirt or trying to find your only clean pair of pants. 

In the morning:

DO. NOT. IGNORE. YOUR. ALARM.

Closing your eyes and staying in bed is a dangerous game to play, and, speaking from experience, you do not want to feel the shock of sleeping all the way until 2nd period.

I usually like to take a shower, eat breakfast, prepare my lunch, and then leave for school.

If you shower the night before or buy lunch at school, then hey, you can wake up later.

Make sure to give yourself 5 minutes extra in case anything goes wrong like you get stuck behind a garbage truck or your dog ripped up your Sperrys.

As the year goes on, I promise you, it will get easier to wake up and go to school.

Keeping a healthy and consistent circadian rhythm is crucial to feeling ready for school every morning. Try not to stay up too late on weekends so your sleep schedule does not get messed up.