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High School Start Time Research Paper

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Students in high school struggle with sleep so seriously that medical professionals call it an epidemic, with 87% of students getting less than the recommended amount of sleep (Richter). It’s difficult to balance sports and extracurriculars with school and homework, and, come junior and senior year, college applications and jobs as well. All these activities in students’ lives leave them little time for a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately for them, sleep is actually crucial, as it has not only been shown to improve GPA, but also help students with memorizing information (Hershner). Not to mention that most high schools start classes early in the morning, with 29.9% of schools starting before 7:30 am, according to a 2012 survey (CDC). According …show more content…

The goal of this restructuring would be to encourage students to go to sleep at an appropriate hour and get enough sleep to function best the next morning. The tenets of the new schedule would be a later school start time, which we hope would allow for students to sleep longer in the morning. Schools that have implemented later start times have experienced both academic improvements and better overall school climates (“Why Change”). Also, later school times are important for teenagers as their circadian rhythms make them more inclined to go to bed later than adults (Hershner), so more sleep in the morning would account for their different sleep habits. Furthermore, a limit would be imposed on homework load. Students often stay up very late finishing their homework, so limiting homework loads will curb this problem. Additionally, we would offer seminars for parents at schools, teaching them about the recommending tactics to help their kids not only get more sleep, but work more efficiently. Studies have been conducted that show improvements in kids sleeping schedules when parents impose and enforce a sleeping schedule (Richter). Alongside teaching them useful parenting practices, we would also teach them of the importance of sleep, and how it has been linked to academic

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