Do Teens Need Sleep?

Over 87% of teenagers don’t get enough sleep and go to school tired. Teenagers have constant expectations to live up to, but with the amount of sleep they’re getting it can be seemingly impossible. The question has been brought up time and time again, should the school day start later? Because of the risks of not getting enough sleep, trying to keep up with their their busy schedules, and being in their adolescent years, having the school day start later would help teenagers around the world immensely.

In “High Schools Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens” by Michelle Trudeau and “High Schools Will Keep Starting Too Early.Here’s why.” by Dan Weissman they both have their own perspectives on life about school starting times and the problems they may bring to the students of high schools.In Michelle Trudeau’s story she says that the starting times for high schools has many students still very drowsy and tired most of the time having them nod off during school instruction.She states that in an average high school 20% of students fall asleep in class on a typical day.Therefore, in need to prevent this from happening teens need more sleep as opposed to them not getting enough sleep from either staying up late or period as some experts say.There are many ways to add additional support for teens and their sleep.

It is a well known fact that teenagers in general need more sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation: “[teenage sleep] is as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage stress of being a teen.” When schools start as early as 7 o’clock, it puts students health at risk. Adolescents already have a natural shift in their internal body clock, or circadian rhythm when it comes to sleep. Puberty allows this to happen, causing a “sleep phase delay” of about two hours. When teens can't fall asleep until late and school starts so early, they aren't getting nearly enough sleep. Lack of such, according to CDC, makes the individual

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

Do you ever wake up and feel like you haven’t gotten enough sleep? The reason is because in reality you probably haven’t. Studies show that schools should not start any earlier that 8:30 in the morning due to teens suffering from sleep deprivation. There are many negative effects this condition can have on a teens body including a direct effect on one’s physical and mental health, public safety and excelling in the future. In the Ted Talk video, " Why school should start later for teens" by, Wendy Troxel.  Ms. Troxel explained why school should start later for teens.. Students are very drowsy in the morning and are usually rushing to get to school on time which limits breakfasts times and healthy food options. Schools should start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.  for several reasons  but sleep deprivation is  the most important. Sleep deprivation can cause a direct effect to a child’s general health and behavior, public safety and potentially future success.

In the first place, students are not getting enough sleep. In the article “Should School Start later” by Lisa M. Herrington [20] “According to the National Sleep Foundation “59% of 6th-8th graders and 87% of high schoolers aren't getting the sleep they require”. This quote shows that students are not getting the sleep they need. And kids must wake up early how are they getting the sleep we need. “So why don’t kids just go to sleep earlier? It’s not that simple” Says Danny Lewin, a sleep specialist at Children's National Health system in Washington, D.C. “Adolescents have a deeply programmed biological clock to go to bed later and wake later” Says

There may be some of you out there who simply believe, “Why don’t they just go to sleep earlier?” The truth is, that the biological clock in adolescents can change on average two hours from middle school into high school, which means that they are supposed to go to sleep at 11 and wake up at around 8 (“Teens Need”). This time frame is not taken into account in high school start times, which suggest adolescents going to sleep at 9 and waking up at 6. The time suggested by the schools goes against a high schooler 's biological clock, leaving most teens going to sleep around 11 and waking up at an average time of 5:30; a mere 6 ½ hours of sleep is achieved with this time frame, 3 hours less than what has been recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (Maloney-Dunn). The American Academy of Pediatrics suggest a high school start time of 8:30 or later

In the article “Pediatricians Say School Should Start Later For Teens’ Health” it states,“...... a National Sleep Foundation poll found that 59 percent of middle schoolers and 87 percent of high schoolers are getting less than the recommended 8 ½ to 9 ½ hours of sleep a night. ”(Shute 2). Many people say that school start time is affecting students’ health.

The average teen gets around 6 hours of sleep each night. Teens actually need 8-10 hours of sleep so that they perform better at school . By messing up the sleep pattern of a student, it can cause them to not think correctly, forget important information, and focus less. In order for students to get more sleep so that they can focus more, studies show that schools should start between 8:30-9:00 Am. Once again, if schools start at later times it will allow students to be more wake and ready to focus in class rather than ready to fall

According to sleepingresources.com, several studies show that most teens’ brains are not awake until after 8:00 in the morning. Teenagers also have a harder time falling asleep at night, so they cannot go to bed earlier to get more sleep. When teens wake up later in the morning, they sleep longer, which improves their grades. Grades are a big part of school, and many students stress out about them. Lack of sleep increases anxiety, which doesn’t help when people are already stressing out about their

On average in today’s society most teens don’t like going to school that early in the morning. To have to wake up so early when they only get about seven hours of sleep, to have students be coming into school at 7:30AM or maybe even earlier in some other schools, is not right. Students need to have time at night to get work done, not only schoolwork but also non-schoolwork. Needless to say, the school schedule for high school students needs to be changed and be made where they go in later. That way they get their work done and get enough sleep because without much sleep students will not be getting high grades. A health survey that the University Health Center administered showed them that one in four students say that lack of sleep has

“Early to bed, early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” said Ben Franklin. This statement points out that humans would achieve many benefits from having an efficient sleep circle. However, this habit seems hard to follow in reality especially for the teenagers who are going through puberty. From Let Kids Sleep Later, Terra Ziporyn Snider mentioned that “starting schools no early than 8:30 a.m. is a turning point in the decades-old-battle to start school later”, which means school days starting later is not a new discussion in society. There are many studies about relationship between time management and the time school starts have been considered to find the best way for students to interact with school and other activities. Although many people believe that students are supposed to go to school early in the morning when they can save more times for more activities, I believe that school days should start later for two main reasons: health issues and time management.

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.

There is a myriad of reasons which explain why students become sleep deprived during the school timings. For example, students are busy and have to juggle many things like jobs, extracurricular activities, chores, and homework after school (Epstein and Mardon, 2). With all these obligations, people cannot possibly expect students to get to bed on time and receive the needed nine hours of sleep. Even if they could finish their duties early, they are teenagers after all and want to have fun rather than habitually carrying out their perfunctory duties. When they have free time, they go to

“The average amount of sleep that teenagers get is between 7 and 7 ¼ hours. However, they need between 9 and 9 ½ hours (studies show that most teenagers need exactly 9 ¼ hours of sleep)” states https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/sleep-in-adolescents which is a website that talks about teenagers and the amount of sleep they receive each night. Waking up early every morning will take a toll on a teenager, especially, since they have school five days a week, have after school activities, and they have to work on homework for hours on end. With the early start times of high schools all around the world, how do teens get the adequate amount of sleep they need? The answer is they don’t. “The CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2015 showed that 73% of U.S. high school students get fewer than 8 hours of sleep on school nights, and 43% get 6 or fewer hours” says http://www.startschoollater.net/wake-up-calls-fast-facts.html which is a website that talks about the amount of sleep teens get, and the amount they