Going to school for consecutive months can get overwhelming. This might cause students many health issues if they don’t begin to take care of themselves and value their health over their academics.

A solution to this issue is that students need to have a longer break during the holiday season in order to allow students to rest up and maintain good mental health. Currently students in FCPS for Thanksgiving break get from November 21 to November 23 off, for Winter break get from December 24 to January 4 off, and for Spring break get from April 15 to April 19 off. At the end of quarters student get a day or so off, as well. For example, some schools in Creede District Colorado, only go to school four days a week.

“I don’t really have time to think about my health and mental health, because I’m so focused on getting good grades,” sophomore Kristina Regmi said.

Many students spend a lot of time stressing over achieving good grades and not paying attention to  how academics are affecting their mental health. Students become concerned about the amount of homework that is due and the tests that they have each week. This leads to students staying up late at night and finishing assignments.

Sleep deprivation can put students at risk of heart issues such as heart disease, heart attacks, heart failure and irregular heartbeat. With the presence of sleep deprivation, individuals will also potentially be at risk of high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes. These are only a few things that can occur to someone if they don’t get enough sleep and conditions that students need to be aware of.

Stress can have many effects on your body, such as, headaches, muscle tension or pain, chest pain, fatigue, stomach pain, and sleep problems. Stress can also have effects on your mood, such as, anxiety, restlessness, lack of motivation or focus, feeling overwhelmed, irritability or anger and sadness or depression. Additionally, stress can also affect someone’s behavior, such as, overeating or under-eating, angry outbursts, drug or alcohol abuse, tobacco use, social withdrawal, and exercising less often.

All of these potentially long-term health issues may have serious effects on students. Individuals  can be suffering from any of these things or have the symptoms and not think that it is anything serious or they might not know.

Having longer holiday breaks would give students time to not stress and enjoy themselves. It would also allow students to rest their minds and lessen focus on school. Having breaks would benefits students greatly and reduce the risk rate of having any issues.

“If we had longer breaks I would finally have some time to myself and not be stressing myself out every day,” freshman Ibrahim Osman said. Fairfax County Public Schools should take all those things into consideration and make at least one of the holiday breaks longer. Thanksgiving break, Winter break, Spring Break, or Summer break can all be made a little bit longer to reduce the stress and pressure that students feel.