EARLY SCHOOL HOURS DO NOT EQUAL SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND TEENS Essay

Students,especially students who drive to and from school are also at risk of more car crashes because of sleep deprivation. Additionally getting good sleep is important to maintaining good health,staying awake and alert, and working at peak performance. Although students can simply sleep earlier, many need that time to study and complete homework, with a later start time students can get their homework down and get a sufficient amount of sleep.”According to this research, the ideal amount of sleep for the average teenager falls between 8.5 and 9.5 hours a night, and teenagers who receive adequate sleep benefit from better physical and mental health, safety, and academic performance. It also revealed that puberty causes a “phase delay” in teenagers, which shifts the time that teenagers fall asleep back by two

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.

School start times play a very big role in a student’s overall development, especially when they aren’t getting enough sleep because of it. An important factor to consider for a student’s development is the act of sleeping; that a lack of it can cause serious problems to the students’ growing body. According to research done with Brown University’s Julie Boergers, the author of the letter “Benefits of later school start times”, the amount of sleep that adolescents need ranges from 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep. Only 17 percent of these students

Research shows that sleep is a necessity for everyone, especially teenagers. When starting school a little later, students can get at least 2-3 hours of extra sleep. With a 7 hour day at school, a couple of hours of homework, studying, and after school activities, there is not much time for sleep. With the extra sleep, when students get to school, they would be focused and ready to learn! “A common belief is that adolescents are tired, irritable and uncooperative because they choose to stay up too late or are difficult to wake in the morning because they are lazy, a study noted. Educators tend to think that adolescents learn best in the morning and if they simply went to sleep earlier, it would improve their concentration” (Schaffhauser 2). For all of these reasons, it is very important for teens should sleep.

At this point, a lot of children do not get a healthy amount of sleep each night because school starts way too early. “Teens bodies’ inner clocks make it hard for them

“Obtaining adequate sleep is important for achieving optimal health. Among adolescents, insufficient sleep has been associated with adverse risk behaviors, poor health outcomes, and poor academic performance.” (dn 1) To my fellow classmates , is waking up at 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning tiring? Especially on mondays , come on now , we know that mondays are the worse . Up all night , and tired in the morning getting ready for school . All american teenagers attend school to get their education but cannot work if they are sleepy and not focused . Even Though we need to start school early so one we will not get out an hour later , and two ruin after school activities , in studies it shows that students are not fully engaged and woken until

Research tells us that the natural tendency for teenagers is to stay up late at night and wake up later in the morning. Evidence suggests that teenagers are indeed seriously sleep deprived. A recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that 60% of children under the age of 18 complained of being tired during the day, according to their parents, and 15% said they fell asleep at school during the year. According to the National Sleep Foundation’s “2002 Sleep in America” poll, 80% of respondents said high schools should start no earlier than 8:00 a.m. each day; nearly one-half of these respondents (47%) said start times should be between 8:00

Teenagers are notorious for staying up late. And late nights coupled with early-morning high school start times means kids are losing a great deal of valuable sleep. Sleep experts now know that teenagers need, in fact, more sleep than adults and children. Sleep studies have found, and Dr. Maas concludes that “adolescents need a minimum of 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep each night to be fully alert during the day” (Crombie 2). Statistics show, however, that few young people even come close to getting their required amount of sleep, with only 15 percent sleeping 8 ½ hours or more during the week (Finger 2). The majority of America’s teenagers, according to a study released by Stanford University, get a scant 6 ½ hours of sleep on school nights (“Adolescent Sleep” 2). With such inadequate sleep, it is no wonder that teenagers slump through the school day; they are legitimately and desperately sleep deprived. The blame for teens’ sleep deprivation, however, often falls on their own weary

If kids don’t get enough sleep than they will not be ready . according to To keep teens alert let them sleep in,’’The better of students were on many levels including mental health

It is a truth universally acknowledged that teenagers sleep late into the day. Laying in a warm bed piled 3 feet high with duvets and blankets, an alarm clock beside them that may have been used only once on the first day of school. Many people believe this is due to pure laziness, however this has been proven wrong (for the majority of them anyways) as it is actually quite natural. Unfortunately the school times don’t coincide with what is best for the optimum chance to learn and capability to keep the information.

Sleep is the fuel that humans need to properly function. The amount of sleep people need is determined by their circadian rhythm, or biological clock. A teenager’s circadian rhythm differs from that found in an adult or younger child. While going through puberty, teenagers need more sleep than when they become adults. Researchers from the National Sleep Foundation have identified several changes in sleep patterns, sleep/wake systems, and circadian timing associated with puberty. In the last decade, a few high schools from around the world have changed to a later start time that would better suit the sleep cycles of their students. Studies by the National Sleep

Studies by the National Sleep Foundation have shown that teenagers lose up to two hours of sleep per night during the school year. A big component of sleep loss is a direct result of the early start times for high school. Between after school sports, work, and homework the average teen does not make it to bed before 11p.m. Adolescents then proceed to wake up before 6:30 a.m. to make it to school on time leaving them with an insufficient amount of sleep. Many fatigued teenagers then come to school and easily miss out on learning. School officials have presented a variety of solutions to school boards to increase student alertness during school hours. One reasonable solution that would be an easy fix to the problem is switching high school and elementary schools’ start times to decrease drowsiness of high schoolers in morning classes.

Schools are filled with people each day. Many of these people are tired and have trouble focusing on schoolwork. Why are these students like this? Many of us are like this, just waiting for the time you can stop listening to teachers talk about their subjects. However, we can become more focused. The easiest way is to get more sleep. What can we move out of our busy schedules? Nothing really. So, all schools should start later. I will discuss the effects of a lack of sleep, the solution, and the consequences of the action we take. 1.Teen’s biological clocks cause them to fall asleep and wake up at later times. The American Association of Pediatrics said, “research indicates that the average teenager in today’s society has difficulty falling asleep before 11:00 PM and is best suited to wake at 8:00 AM or later.” and that “most adolescents begin to experience a sleep–wake “phase delay”, manifested as a shift of up to 2 hours relative to sleep– wake cycles in middle childhood.” Simply stated, teenagers fall asleep later and wake up later than they did when they were younger. The National Sleep Foundation said that “...they [adolescents] need 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep.” These show a lack of sleep. If a teenager falls asleep at exactly 11PM, and has to wake up at 7 AM to get ready for school, they will only get 8 hours of sleep, a little below the recommended 8.5 hour minimum. Losing that half hour or so of sleep every night is what is causing us as teenagers to be tired and unfocused during the school day. This is not as uncommon as you might think. The CDC said that approximately 31% of high school students get enough sleep each night. That is 69 out of every 100 of us that don’t sleep enough. This is not it. Other reasons for a lack of sleep include: irregular bedtimes, and use of technology in the evening. We have now learned that most of us aren’t getting enough sleep. Getting enough sleep means teenagers will be healthier. In an article written by the CDC, it said, “Adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight, not engage in daily physical activity, suffer from depressive symptoms, and engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs.”

Schools that start before 8 a.m. are a major reason students aren’t getting adequate sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation teenagers need on average 8 ½ - 9 ½ hours of sleep a night(Schute, Nancy). Realistically students rarely get that much sleep. When students don’t get adequate sleep it has the ability to affect their attention span, memory, problem-solving ability, and mood(Rosenberg, Russell). Are these students actually expected to pay attention, learn, solve problems, and have an acceptable attitude when they wake up sleep deprived? With a sleep cycle that changes once students hit puberty and an increase in the production of melatonin its nearly impossible for teens to fall asleep before 10:30 p.m.(Edwards, Finley). In my own experience I don’t even get tired until around 11:30 p.m. and barely fall asleep before 12, so it makes it extremely difficult to wake up at 6 a.m. and get ready for the day.

Many individuals, especially adolescents, do not function well early in the morning. “…many teenagers are going to school with their brains essentially in sleep mode” (Kaufman, 2001). This makes it difficult to retain information and in return use the information they have learned later on according to Robert Gerson, a physician and parent (Heinen, 1996). There is a reasonable explanation for why adolescents need the sleep they need at the times in which they need it, or do it for that matter. “Their circadian rhythms, determined by release of the hormone melatonin and other factors, were telling them to stay up later (even if their homework was finished and the day’s chores complete) and to get up later. On basic biological level, many had no more control over that circadian switch than they did over growing facial hair or breasts” (Kaufman, 2001).