It’s 1:00 a.m. again.
My math homework is still open on one tab, ASB proposals on another, and a half-finished dance choreography video paused on my phone. My eyelids sting, but my mind keeps spinning: did I forget to reply to that email? Did I cut the music right for the rally? Is the answer to #43 correct? Did I practice enough for my West Coast School of the Arts competition this weekend?
Most nights feel like this: like my body is being pulled in five different directions, and I’m sprinting just to keep up. I’m not the only one. More and more teens are living in a constant state of overwhelm, pushing themselves to the limit in the name of college applications, leadership roles, and future success.
Today’s teen faces an increasingly competitive environment. In 2014, the American Psychological Association reported that teens are experiencing the same level of stress as adults, and things haven’t gotten any easier since. If anything, shifts in the college application process over the last decade have added more pressure.
According to Prep Scholar, a Harvard graduate test prep and college admissions counseling service, junior year is critical because it is the last full academic year colleges see. This is compounded due to the way students apply to colleges, which has changed. A recent Vox article found that 58% of students apply either early action (EA) or early decision ED, with most colleges requiring the EA or ED application to be submitted by November 1st, as opposed to the traditional January 1st deadline. To stay competitive, students are cramming more Advanced Placement (AP) classes into their schedules.
According to Appleround, an education company, they have seen that a “significantly greater proportion of students are taking a greater number of AP exams than in prior years. The percentage of students taking 9 exams is up 50%, 10 exams is up 67%, 11 exams is up 75%, and students taking 12 exams and greater is up over 100%.” This increased stress is also felt by parents who at times feel like “all you can do is survive it.” As Mary McNamara states in her LA Times article, entry to a University of California school requires a range of AP classes and “a GPA that hovers near, and preferably above, a 4.0.”
With this staggering increase in demand, counteracting this stress is critical for high school students. When evaluating how young people cope with their average 3.5 hours of homework a night and expectations that do not always feel appropriate to their developmental levels, a recent NYU study found that “healthy, problem-focused coping” was critical for students; this problem-focused coping includes incorporating “sports and exercise, preventive activities such as good planning skills, and maintaining a balanced perspective on school and grades.”
While sports and movement in general are linked to a decrease in stress, dance in particular can offer benefits for teens. “Bains have shown that different regions of the brain are activated by dance,” and this activation is linked to mental and physical health gains. According to Harvard Medical School, “researchers looked at the effects of 11 different types of physical activity, including cycling, golf, swimming, and tennis, but found that only one of the activities studied—dance—lowered participants’ risk of dementia.”
Perhaps this increased benefit is due to dance acting as both an art form as well as a form of exercise. Dancing allows for emotional expression, a stress outlet, a practice in mindfulness, connections with others, and a way to cultivate confidence. In the article, “Dance as a Tool for Emotional Expression and Stress Management,” dance was linked to significantly reducing cortisol levels, the hormone associated with stress.
As the factors that contribute to teen stress are unlikely to diminish anytime soon, scheduling in exercise, in particular a bit of time to dance, may be the best remedy for teens whose thoughts are jumbled together. So if you feel overwhelmed, especially if you are a teen, consider having a bit of a bounce, step, sway, and groove to your favorite song and let the rhythm help you reset.
