Dr. Robert Vorona, An Associate Professor Of Internal Medicine

Adolescents and adults need around 9 hours of sleep daily (De Souza 5). Since schools are starting so early, they can not get the needed sleep time, eight to nine hours. Even though teachers go to school the same time as students, consequences are worse in students and it seems to have more of a critical effect on students. No matter if it is a student or a teacher, the quality of sleep is very important for everybody.

As a result of a changing body and mind, adolescent sleep cycles have different needs than those of adults or younger children. As a matter of fact, Biologically, sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence -- meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm (“Teens”). In addition to biological change in sleep patterns, teenagers also tend to have eccentric sleep cycles. Obtaining less than healthy hours of sleep during the school week and then catching up on their sleep on the weekends. Most teenagers during the school week, do not get the suggested amount of sleep. In fact, according to a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 80% of teenagers do not get the suggested amount of sleep of 9 hours on school nights (“School Start”). With changing bodies and minds, along with an increased amount of schoolwork and extracurricular activities, teenagers need more sleep than children of a younger age. Experts believe that moving back the start time of school for high school students will improve grades, test scores, and the overall health and personality of many students.

Traditional school schedules affect students sleep patterns by forcing them to wake up early when their body wants to sleep, which leads to sleep deprivation (wol.iza.org). Again, sleep deprivation can lead to lots of negative mental and physical health issues. Npr.org says, “Teenagers are getting six to seven hours of sleep a night, and they need eight to ten.” Because most students do not become tired until around eleven or midnight, they are unable to get the right amount of sleep because the school start times are so early (wol.iza.org).

With a later school start students would not be as sleep deprived.Doctors recommend that teens get 8 to 9 hours of sleep per night. With teens getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep would also make it better for students getting to school.This would be beneficial to teen drivers.

It has been studied that teenagers need 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep every night.But two thirds of teenagers presumably in high school receive only or less than seven hours of sleep.This is probably due to the fact that forty three percent of high schools that are public start before 8:00

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

Assuming by the time teenagers start high school they will have around three hours of homework each night. Most high schoolers will not start their homework right as they get home, they will take a much-needed break and relax for a few hours, meaning they would not start their homework until 8:00PM. The homework is not very easy, forcing them to spend even longer on their homework and they are awake until midnight trying to figure out how to calculate the mass of Saturn.For instance, during the school week most students would be going to bed at 11:32 PM and wake up at 7:20 allowing them to get 7 hours and 48 minutes opposed to weekends where they would fall asleep at 12:56 and wake up at 10:36 getting 9 hours a 40 minutes of needed sleep (Wahlstrom). The amount of sleep they are getting on the weekdays is not sufficient to promote healthy growth. It is important for everyone to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night to be able to function properly. With a lack of sleep comes a risk of medical

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, teenagers need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep. However, only 34% of teens report getting 8 hours of sleep on a school night (Ming, Koransky, Kang, Buchman, Sarris, and Wagner). If we started schools later student's health would improve. It could also potentially help prevent some bad conditions that the CDC associates with prolonged sleep deprivation. People who do not get enough sleep are at a higher risk of diabetes, problems with obesity and poor mental health.

Young people who do not get enough sleep can become depressed, carry risks for drowsy driving, and lower performance level (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). There are many teenagers who are depressed all over the country. Pushing back the time school starts can lower the depression rate among teenagers. Also, not getting enough sleep can increase the urge to drink alcohol and use of caffeine and nicotine (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Teens drinking alcohol can lead to many dangerous outcomes such as, death or being hospitalized. Parents should not have to deal with the risk behaviors of their kids caused by the insufficient amount of sleep from school hours. Drowsy driving has caused more than 100,000 car crashes per a year. This creates a hazardous environment to the surrounding community. It could possibly lead to the death other of others or destruction of the vehicle. Many teenagers have to drive to work or activities regardless of if they are tired or not (Backgrounder: Later School Start times). Therefore, to reduce depression and the risk behaviors of teenagers, school should start

Students continue to work late into the night to meet the pressing homework deadlines, sacrificing much needed sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need 8.5 to 9.25 hours

To begin, school starting as early as it is, teens don’t get enough sleep. Not getting enough sleep is affecting the body negatively. 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).” Sleep deficit is what most teenagers face. Teens try to redress this by consuming caffeine. Caffeinating to get through the day or trying to sleep more on weekends cannot fix this problem (Shute). In fact it makes it worse.

It is estimated that only 15 percent actually get these amounts (Kids Suffer from Sleep Deprivation). This is particularly important for students who wish to do well in school. Dr. Carl Hunt, the director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, is spearheading a sleep campaign. Her philosophy is, “Sleep well, do well.” This is something that shouldn’t be taken to lightly. Sleep problems effect about 70 million Americans of all ages. Teens often have problems with daytime sleepiness. The old idea of early to bed, early to rise isn’t necessarily the best answer. Society is simply asking to much of teens (Sleep experts to teens). A combination of school, work, study and leisure, leaves very little time left for sleep. Being deprived of sleep definitely has an effect on how well students do in school and may be putting their health at risk. College students who stay up all night to study for a test or write a big paper that’s due often have no choice because of the pressures to do well and succeed, but at what price do they pay?

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

Students often complain about not getting enough sleep; this is usually accurate because many kids stay up until the late hours of the night doing homework.

“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