Back School Start Times: Helpful Or Harmful?

Schools should have later start times. Students need more sleep so students do not grow up to have a health risk. This example proves that because According to The National Sleep Foundation “ Adolescents today face a widespread chronic health problem: sleep deprivation.” Also students do not perform at their best during school when they are tired. This example proves that because According to education.com “ I

First of all, kids will be more energized and be more academically advanced if school starts are pushed back. According to, “Should School Start Later” “Studies show that well rested teens get better grades, have higher standardized test scores, and miss fewer days of school. They also have a lower risk of being in car accidents and have fewer health problems such as depression, mood changes, and being overweight.” Many schools start before 7:45 a.m. and have tired students not putting forth their best efforts while 40 percent of American High Schools start classes past 8 a.m. The schools with later starts

Staying up until 1am to finish math homework and studying for that huge history test next class is pretty routine for some teens. Juggling school, sports, a social life, and other extracurriculars is tough, and teens are already in a critical period in their life. It is the time period in which teens grow and learn the most, and sets them up for a bright future. Staying healthy both mentally and physically is imperative, and sleep is probably the most important. Schools starting as early as 7am limits a teen’s potential. If schools were to start later, the benefits would be endless. Schools starting later improves both physical and mental health of students, keeps the individual and those around them safer, and improves students performance in school and sports.

Early start times negatively affect teens in many different aspects. Many people say school starting early has worked fine in the past years, we have learned to adjust to it. Change will be hard, why change school times now? Yes, this is true, it will be a change, but it is a change worth it in the long run. Although we have adjusted to early school start times, it does not mean the current schedule is best for teens. School can begin simply too early considering most teens don’t get the opportunity to fulfill their sleep needs. This is often caused by homework, a busy social life, extracurricular activities, and family all combined. Sleep is well needed, but the necessary sleep amount is lost with early start times. Additionally, current school schedules are not benefiting teens; it comes with discouraging effects, there is evidence to support this. The National Sleep

Typically, people enjoy receiving an extra hour of sleep, even an extra five minutes of sleep. Teens are just one group of people who enjoy sleep. Unfortunately, teens are unable to obtain the correct number of hours per night. Later school start times would be beneficial because the schools would see an impact on attendance, increased school performance, and based on several studies, students would receive the recommended amount of sleep. The psychological effects would greatly outweigh the negative effects caused by an early start time. Benefits of a later start time include, better health, improved grades and teens reaching the recommended amount of sleep per night. Downfalls of starting school later would be transportation issues, coddling

The students of this generation appear to be a bunch of lazy, depressed, unenergetic zombies, but is this entirely their fault? After a considerable amount of investigating it appears as if their lack of energy could be due to sleep deprivation resulting from early school start times. When later school times have been compared to those schools that start earlier, there are significant changes in the behaviors and results that students emit in a school environment. Schools should have a later start time that is better suited to the biological needs of adolescents as a way to aid them in achieving a higher quality education.

Starting school at later times makes students more likely to pay attention in class. The California Academy of Sciences says, ¨Studies have shown that middle and high school students with adequate amounts of sleep, 8-10 hours, have better test scores. ¨ Since students do not get enough sleep, it would be very beneficial to start school at later times, since they would fall asleep with the correct amount of sleep. To add on to this reason, Diana Zuckerman Ph.D. says, ¨In order to compensate for the later start time, the school cut 5-10 minutes of every class and activity. The change meant students had slightly less time in the classroom, but the tradeoff was improved attention during the school day.¨ Although starting classes at later times

To begin with, schools that have started later have seen better academic results. Many schools have seen improvement in standardized test scores recently due to later school start times. For example, the article “Do schools Begin Too Early” by Finley Edwards states that a school in Wake County North Carolina delayed their school start times by one hour and saw at least 2 more percentile points in standardized test scores. This means that schools that have delayed their start times have seen improved performance and grades in school. In addition, many students have came to school more due to later start times. According to Finley Edwards “Students who start school one hour later have 1.3 fewer absences than the typical student.” This means that schools which have started later have had more students come to school. Therefore, starting school later has many pros including academic results.

Over the course of the last few years, many people have studied and argued whether or not school should start later. Some studies suggest that a later start time would boost health and academic performance, and lower car crash rates and incidents of teen drinking. However, others still argue that high school should still start as early as 7:30 in the morning due to transportation scheduling, extracurricular activities, and the wishes of parents in the district.Although many people argue that a later start time will improve health and academic performance, there are many advantages to an earlier start time that go beyond health and grades.

Schools should start later because teens tend to stay up at night and sleep in the morning. Also, teens drink coffee to stay awake in class and now doctors are becoming worried about their health. The later school starts the better they are on many measures.

There is a question that many people ask themselves every day: are school starting times too early? It is a very controversial topic, and has been debated for years. Most people might say that the benefits of starting school later control the decision; however, when you think about it, the consequences actually outweigh the benefits. The benefits of starting school later are as follows: less sleep deprivation, better academic/athletic performance, and better attitude. Sleep deprivation is common among teens due to schoolwork and athletics, as students have to stay at school for athletics, then head home and do their homework which could take hours upon end.

Secondly, school starting at a later time is beneficial academically. Most teens don’t get enough sleep which causes them to feel sleep deprived and stressed for school. Teens usually get six to seven hours of sleep but Dr. Cora Breuner says, “ We truly believe that our teenagers are getting six to seven hours of sleep a night, and they need eight to 10 (Shute).” This causes teens exhausted for the school and not mentally or physically prepared for each class in school. However, teens who get more sleep do better academically, with better standardized scores and a better quality living style (Shute). For example through one studies, showing the delay by an hour in start time, increases standardized test scores by roughly 3 percentile points (Edwards). So academically it is beneficial for the kids in school.

In conclusion Making school start early for children and teens is not the way to go. If we as a whole start school too early we will prevent the children and teens from getting the sleep they need. By starting school too early the children and teens will eventually start falling asleep in class and therefore they will start losing information that they will need because they will be sleep and exhausted because of the lack of sleep. By starting school later on we can help children and teens around the world get the education, activities and sleep they

The national sleep epidemic that has taken the world by storm is also taking a toll in not only teen’s health but also their performance in school as well as personal safety. The sleep deprivation that teens are experiencing everyday has caused many health problems as well as academic problems. I believe starting school later will hinder this ever growing teen sleep deprivation problem we face today. Letting teens sleep later is beneficial to their learning capacity as their heightened alertness improved their classroom performance as well as better memory and many other crucial achievements. So probably starting school later, but no later than eight thirty am, will lead students to perform better in school and their health will improve drastically.

We live in an age when many growing adolescents are constantly fighting their natural body clocks. It could potentially be one of the biggest issues facing our high school systems. Many school’s across America have started to push back their school start times. Is it worth it? The answer is yes. School should start later in order to unlock our nation’s high school potential.