High School Start Times Research Paper

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

For years and years there has been a lot of discussion about when a reasonable time for students to wake up and go to school should be. There are two main sides. One side believes that school should start later, and the other side believes that the school start times should not be changed. The average teenagers’ alarm for school goes off as early as 6:00 A.M. A little less than half of U.S. public schools start before 8:00 A.M. Studies show that over half of students are not getting 8 hours of sleep or more. That leads to the 33% of teenagers who are found asleep in the classroom (Owens).

Students need a good amount of sleep to be able to focus and get through the school day. Students ability to function during school is impacted by the quantity, regularity, and quality if their sleep (Wolfson 1). The quality of sleep is not only important for the students but it is also important for the teachers. The quality of sleep affects the way students and teachers act throughout the day. Daytime sleepiness and poor sleep quality on school days in students and teachers may comprise school and work performance (De Souza 5). Since students and teachers stay up so late at night, they tend to be very tired during the day. It is important to get sleep but it is more important to get a good sleep. There is not really a point in sleeping or trying to get sleep when it is not a good sleep because no matter what students will be tired during the day. While the quality of sleep is important, so is the amount of sleep a student or teacher is getting on school nights.

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.

Lack of sleep can seriously affect students mental and physical health and can change it permanently. “Effects on one crummy night’s sleep: You feel groggy, forgetful, clumsy,” according to Scholastic Choices, When Sleep Becomes a Nightmare. Lack of sleep makes adolescents become more vulnerable to depression and obesity (npr.org). For example, when people are tired they want foods or drinks with lots of sugar or caffeine to give them a temporary boost, but it can later on affect their body negatively (sleepingresorces.com). When students don’t get the right amount of sleep they can become

One of these benefits is that the students and the teachers would both obtain added sleep, therefore; their health would increase. The recommended hours of sleep a night for teens is over nine hours and an abundance of teens do not reach this number due to late nights and early mornings (Boergers, 1). If students received the recommended hours of sleep per night, their health would increase greatly. An immense health benefit of getting enough sleep per night is that it lowers depression (Boergers, 2). Some health risks that accompany not receiving enough sleep are obesity, drinking problems, tobacco smoking, and use of drugs (Viadero, 5). Sleep deprivation can also cause anxiety and depression. Therefore, if schools started later, students would, overall, be healthier. Another pro to arriving at school later would be the

Have you ever been really tired when you wake up for school in the morning? Sleep is very important to all teens, or it should be. Young adults should have 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep every night, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), in Sarah McKibben’s article “Wake Up Calls”. Unfortunately, two-thirds of teens are getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night, according to the NSF’s chart. This is causing a large number of schools and scientists to think that schools should start later in the morning. I fiercely disagree with this. Schools should not start later because starting later for high schools would cause too many negative consequences.

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.

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

Losing sleep could result in lowered grades and fatigue that would not be experienced if they were able to get more

Starting schools later, even as early as 8:30 am would reduce the amount of car crashes that high schooler and buses have because since it is later in the morning, when teenagers can get more sleep and they have less fatigue and sleep deprivation so they can focus on the road. Sleep deprivation impairs the brain to be able to be alert, pay attention, solve problems and cope with stress. If schools started as early as an hour later than students would get more sleep and this would result in many beneficial and positive things for the brain like alertness and ability to concentrate. CDC also reports that 70% of high school teens sleep for 7 hours or less. Teens need to sleep for at least 8-10 hours, this is because the teenage brain produces the sleep-inducing hormone called melatonin at a delayed schedule.

School districts expect us to wake up half an hour after the crack of dawn, go to school and while groggy and sleep deprived, and still expect us to surrender our full attention in each and every one of our 6 periods. Sending sleep-deprived teenagers to school as early as 5:30 is dangerously unhealthy, unsafe, and evidently counterproductive. According to the American Academy ofPediatrics, without receiving the appropriate amount of sleep teenagers find it 60% harder to focus in class. Lack of sleep can lead to excessive fatigue, emotional distress, laziness, obesity and a lowered perception of quality of

Do any of you have classes that start earlier than 10 AM? Do you catch yourself yawning or falling asleep throughout the day? Most of you do. Waking up at the crack of dawn for another day of school isn’t fun for anyone: not for the millions of kids who have to be at school before 8:30 AM and certainly not for the parents who have to drag those kids out of bed. Teen students’ need a later school start time for many reasons: it gives teens the opportunity to get much needed sleep; it improves their academic performance; as well as helping them become healthier.

Also, Dr. Cora Breuner, an adolescent medicine specialist at Seattle Children's Hospital says “We want to promote safety for kids” (source 1). Which believe that kids are getting six to seven hours of sleep a day when the really need eight to ten. Some specialists believe that if teenagers get a later start time for school they could get a better time of sleep and could get a better test scores. A National

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