A teacher’s typical workday doesn’t stop when the school day is over. After school, many teachers still need to attend meetings, make parent phone calls and send emails, create lesson plans, and grade papers. This leaves little time to relax—and, in some cases, the job is even disrupting teachers’ sleep.
Nine in 10 teachers work on average more than 40 hours each week, according to a 2023 RAND Corp. report. Thirty-two percent of teachers reported working between 51 and 60 hours each week, compared to 5% of other working adults, the RAND survey found.
Additionally, research shows that the job of teaching often makes educators too tired for personal activities after school, especially in comparison to other working adults (46% vs. 13%).
Plus, some of the job-related stressors have no easy fix. Last year, teachers’ top concern keeping them up at night was student behavior and discipline, according to a survey by the EdWeek Research Center. Since the pandemic, student behavior has worsened, and educators feel that cellphones and social media have made it even worse.
For example, online trends have caused trouble in the classroom, like the viral Chromebook challenge earlier this year, when students inserted school supplies into the USB port of their laptops, causing them to overheat. More recently, the “six-seven” trend caused classroom chaos and annoyance, educators said.
Other job-related challenges, from unsupportive administrators to how the state and federal politics are affecting schools, can keep teachers up at night, too.
In an informal social media poll this month, Education Week asked, “Do you regularly lose sleep over work challenges and stressors?” Fifty-five percent of the 1,168 respondents said “often,” while 14% said “never.” Thirty percent said “sometimes.”
In Facebook and LinkedIn comments, educators shared more details about why they may or may not be losing sleep over their work. The responses have been edited lightly for length and clarity.
Despite leaving the profession, the stress still haunts this educator
Even three years out of teaching, I still wake up shaken by school-themed nightmares. The worst is the active shooter scenario, but I also dream about losing a student on a field trip or an admin discovering my class left alone while I’m nowhere to be found.
While school shootings are statistically rare, they often weigh heavily on teachers’ minds. Education Week has documented how educators can move forward after a school shooting.
Some educators have found ways to cope with the workload
[I don't lose sleep] anymore. That directly affects our health and can lead to a short life span. Find an outlet. Learn to deep breathe and focus on what you can control.
Balancing extra responsibilities can feel overwhelming without proper preparation. Most days, I don’t get much downtime until right before bed, which sometimes leaves me worrying about unfinished tasks. While I don’t have all the answers, I’ve found that using LMS platforms like Gemini and Brisk Teaching has made a real difference in managing the workload.
For other educators, the stress keeps them up at night
Limited time and so many responsibilities taking away precious plan time—it seems there is always something I didn’t get to that needed to be done. Updating data sheets, MTSS data collection and posting, grading or posting grades, calling a parent—it's constant juggling, and one ball is always being dropped depending on the day and what is the highest level of need or demand. All of that rolls through my mind, and during peak demand times of year, sleep sometimes evades me.
Absolutely, especially on Sundays. Messes up my whole week sometimes.
Keeping up with new technologies, class prep, dealing with various working styles, always trying to build and grow and learn, and then keeping up to your own expectations is exhausting! Gratifying, but exhausting.
