So much homework, so little time. Sigh.

Their backs already were sore from lugging home textbooks every school night, their brains weary from long evenings of essays and exponents. So when Norton Middle School officials eliminated two study halls each week, three seventh-grade girls decided they had had enough.

Kerryn Camara, Lynsey Kearns, and Audra Schlehuber gathered more than 150 signatures on a petition to restore the study halls, which were scaled back to fulfill state requirements on classroom time. They pleaded their case -- so far unsuccessfully -- to the School Committee, saying homework-harried students badly need the study time to finish assignments before their eyelids grew too heavy.

''I know two classes a week doesn't seem like a lot, but a lot of kids are staying up until midnight on their homework," Kearns said. ''We don't have enough time to get it all done."

Complaints about homework are a time-honored tradition, but today's protests may be more than idle grumbling. With teachers and schools under increasing pressure to cover more topics and raise standardized test scores, even young students at many suburban schools are saddled with a heavy load of nightly assignments, teachers and parents say.

The heavy homework burden has become a dominant topic of conversation on sports fields, at dinner parties, and at PTA meetings.

Parents have greeted the trend with a resounding chorus of complaints, saying the hours spent on homework are detracting from normal family life. Students are sacrificing sleep to finish work sheets and projects -- and robbing families of what little relaxation time together they have, they say.

''The standards have been raised, and it can't all be covered in the school day," said Diana Potter, a Norton parent and member of the middle school council. ''But it's hard on kids who are already overscheduled. They have two minutes between classes, barely have time to eat lunch, then they leave school with a 30-pound backpack. There's no downtime."

Homework is more of an issue in area suburbs than in some other places. A 2003 Brookings Institution study found that most American students spend less than 20 minutes a day on homework, and that half of students report doing no homework at all. Students are spending far more time glued to the television than with a good book, studies have found.

But that picture clashes with the educational culture in many area communities, where public schools may strive for the high standards seen in private schools. And one way the effort is expressed is in hours of homework assigned.

The three Norton seventh-graders -- bright, articulate girls described by their principal as standout students -- bounce from activity to activity after school, then study for about two hours each evening, more if they have a test or a project due the next day.

''As soon as I finish dinner, I have to start my homework," said Kearns, who goes to basketball practice and theater classes after school. ''That takes me till about 10 p.m., and I go right to bed. What ever happened to relaxing?"

Camara said her parents notice when she is stressed out and tell her to go to bed. ''Homework helps things stick in your brain," she said, ''but when you have so much it's an overload."

Schlehuber agreed: ''It's a lot of pressure on a 12- or 13-year-old."

Roger Parent, principal of Norton Middle School, said he sympathizes with the students but does not see an immediate alternative.

''You try to strike a happy balance, but we're under the gun with the 900 hours," he said, referring to the state rule dictating a year's worth of classroom time.

Braintree's schools superintendent, Peter Kurzberg, said homework is a valuable way to ''reinforce and extend" classroom learning. Teachers strive to avoid busywork and make assignments focused and meaningful, he said. Middle school students are supposed to spend no more than two hours a night on their studies, Kurzberg said.

Parental concerns about overload are reinforced by some researchers, such as John Buell, author of ''The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning."

According to Buell, there is little evidence to suggest that homework helps students learn, particularly in the younger grades, and backfires by disrupting family life and souring children on academics.

Buell said with public schools under intense pressure to reach ambitious standards mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, teachers are assigning more homework in an attempt to cover more ground and drill home tough concepts. It often leaves youngsters and their parents huddled over assignments at the kitchen table late into the evening, he said.

But some educators and researchers said it's the students' hectic schedules -- not homework -- that's to blame. As rewarding as ballet and baby-sitting can be, studies should come first, they contend.

''To my mind, the priorities need to be straightened out," said Janine Bempechat, a Newton parent and author of ''Getting Our Kids Back on Track: Educating Children for the Future." ''Schoolwork can't come at the bottom of the pile."

Bempechat, a Wheelock College professor, said she believes homework instills diligence and focus and teaches students to work independently and organize their time. Studies show that while homework does not seem to improve academic performance in elementary school, it boosts learning sharply as the material becomes more complex and conceptual.

''It's very clear from the research that the value of homework really kicks in in middle school," she said.

But many parents still question whether the boosted brainpower is worth the frayed nerves. Margaret Holland, a Hingham mother of four in grades 3, 5, 7, and 11, said the nightly assignments are a household ''nightmare" after a day of Brownies, Boy Scouts, and church classes.

''It creates a cloud over the entire evening," she said. ''I have to keep asking them, 'Did you get it done, did you get it done?' It's like that every single night."

A student-teacher in a Cohasset elementary school, Holland said she will keep that cloud in mind when she is assigning homework next year.

''When it's a sunny day outside, I'll try to ease up," she said.

Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.