Early School Start Time Research Paper

The consequences of sleep deprivation during the teenage years are particularly serious. Teens spend a great portion of each day in school when it starts early; resulting in a lack of sleep. Ultimately, sleep deprivation affects a student’s academic performance. When students lose sleep, they disrupt their sleep cycles and their bodies respond by decreasing their ability to concentrate and complete complex tasks. A prolonged period of cumulative sleep deprivation will affect their physical and mental well-being and consequently their capacity to learn.

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.

Because of kids not getting enough sleep it increases obesity rates, depression, motor vehicle accidents (M.V.A.), and a lower quality of life. “Getting enough sleep is important and early start times are preventing many adolescences from

Schools should start later because starting schools earlier prevents children from getting a full night's sleep, and it can make a students academic performance take the wrong turn. Schools should start later because starting schools earlier prevents children from getting a full night’s sleep, which can affect their health, safety, and development. The AASM recommends that teenagers should sleep 8 to 10 hours a night. But according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), almost 70% of high-school students report sleeping 7 hours or less on a regular basis.

First, school times should be pushed back to later start times because students will not be sleep deprived. Many teenagers are not getting enough sleep and this is due to early school start times. A National Sleep Foundation Poll reported 28% of teenagers fall asleep at least once a week during first hour of school due to their lack of sleep. This means that

If you are one of those people that are in there teen years and they struggle with sleep? 33% of teenagers report falling asleep in school. There are so many people that agree with Lisa M. Herrington, the author of “should school start later” but there are some people that disagreed with A.B.C news where they had a debate for school start time, but the infographic truly states that students should get more sleep.

The CDC press release reported fewer “than 1 in 5 middle and high schools in the U.S. began the school day at the recommended 8:30 AM start time or later” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1). Anne Wheaton an epidemiologist in the CDC’s division of Population Health explained that getting enough sleep is important for students “health safety, and academic performance“ however “Early school start times are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep they need” (1). The American Medical Association issued a 2016 policy statement supporting delayed school start times to improve adolescent wellness. Specifically the new policy calls on “school districts across the United States to implement middle and high school start times no earlier than 8:30 a.m.” (American Medical Association 1). As with the other health organizations the AMA mentioned health concerns as a primary reason for recommending later school start times. “Sleep deprivation is a growing public health issue affecting our nation’s adolescents, putting them at risk for mental, physical and emotional distress and disorders” (1). The AMA believes delaying school

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.

In sixth grade there are plenty of 10-12 year olds who don't get enough sleep. If you are 10-12 years old you need 10 or eleven hours of sleep each night. Having an early school start time means that those people at that age will need to go to bed at 6:30 to 7:30 if they want to wake up at 5:30. Kids at our school are most defiantly not going to bed at 6:30; most people have church, sports, just out of school activities that are usually in the afternoon, some running all the way to 8:30, even 9:00. Because kids aren't getting enough sleep they have harder times controlling emotions and focusing. Someone not being able to function correctly is a big problem. Students can have cognition problems; not being able to focus, make decisions, bad memory, late reactions and hardly any creativity. All of those things are needed for school, but it can be prevented. All we need to do is get a later start time to school for a healthier diet and a healthier student.

Sleep is a very important part of our life. The right amount of sleep is important in how productive our day turns out to be. Early school hours are causing children to not get enough sleep and making the children vulnerable to depression, anxiety, weight gain, lack of focus, and being late to school. Adolescents need between 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night. However, they are not able to get that because by the time they fall asleep at night it is past 11pm, and then they have to get up for school around 6am. The solution is to start school at a later time. Good sleep would mean that students will be more focused and productive in school.

If students come to school with their brain’s not fully functioning yet because of the lack of sleep they had gotten, it would be extremely difficult to do any work. This can lead to low test scores and an impact on their grades and scores. In Source A, Nancy Shute states, “We truly believe that our teenagers are getting six to seven hours of sleep a night, and they need eight to 10.” (page 1). Many teens aren’t getting the full sleep that they need. Instead they are losing three to four hours of sleep. This amount of lack of sleep can cause student’s to be tired while they are at school. Although there have been many reports insisting that teens should be getting eight to ten hours of sleep, only 15 percent of high schools have embraced the change and made their school start at 8:30 or later. Even worse the percentage of high schools that are starting before 8 a.m. is 40 percent. Some may argue their point that middle and high schoolers can sleep at an earlier time to gain the sleep they lose, but pediatricians say that as children become teenagers their sleep-wake cycle changes. According to Source A, Nancy Shute states, “As children become teenagers, their sleep-wake cycle shifts two hours late, so it’s

As a result, many teachers have a excellent explanation for not changing school start times, but they will need to know what the pediatrics need to say. By changing start times to a later time, teenagers could have a healthy life, and could get a better score on tests. “There's a price to pay” says Dr. Judith Owens, which studies have shown that lack of sleep in teenagers the risk of traffic accidents and makes them more vulnerable to depression and

When school starts so early, students just aren’t getting enough sleep. Doctors recommend teens get between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of sleep each night and with all the after-school activities, homework and early school start times, they are not getting that. Less than a third of high school students get 8 hours of sleep on school nights. As children get older, it’s harder for them to fall asleep at night, causing them to go to bed late and when they have to get up early to go to school, they are not getting nearly enough sleep. Studies shows children that do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight, not engage in physical activity, suffer from symptoms of depression, perform poorly in school and

School start times for adolescents in the United States are typically too early to be healthy for this age group. There is significant evidence from the research literature that early starts have serious negative impacts on students. In particular, early education start times in adolescence cause chronic sleep deprivation, which damages both adolescents’ education and health. Fortunately, chronic sleep deprivation is one of the more preventable public health issues facing the nation.

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?