High School Starting Time Research Paper

Schools all around the nation have starting times for school, that are too early for the students and teachers alike. Schools starting times should be 8:30 in the morning or later, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Sleep loss has become more common in children due to early start times which only gives them 6-7 hours of sleep a night when growing children should have 8-9 hours a night. children suffer the chronic loss of sleep due to the hormonal roller coaster that you call puberty, which only lets them begin to go into a REM sleep around 10 p.m. . It’s also been proven that adolescent children suffer from highers risks of physical health problems, mental health problems, lower test scores, missing school, substance abuse, and being in a car crash due to sleep deprivation. Students end up having to get up before 6:30 to get ready and catch the bus or walk to school, but when you have to study for hours after school, eat, clean up, participate in extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs, and do chores in less than 4 hours to get the sleep they require to be healthy mentally and physically it’s almost impossible. School should start later to better our future generations, with more sleep we could have more positive members of societies.

Here is my proposal. If we were to start school at nine, thus getting two hours of extra sleep, we would feel more awake and alive during the school day. Dr. John Deew of the University of Delaware says, “It is proven that one

High Schools should begin later in the day to accommodate for students to get the natural sleep they really need.

One of the biggest struggles for students today, is the struggle to wake up for school in the mornings, and to make it to class on time. Because of the start times that many high and middle schools currently have, students are having to get up early to get ready, therefore providing them with little sleep at night. They are faced with their everyday schedules, things that are happening in other parts of their lives, as well as having to keep up with their schoolwork. All of this results in a loss of sleep, with the added factor of having to wake up early in the mornings. Having a later start time for schools is beneficial for student’s health, safety, and their overall performance in school.

There are many learning benefits that go along with later start times. According to pediatrics for parents, "the percentage of students who got eight or more hours of sleep went from 18% to 44%. Daytime sleepiness, depression and caffeine consumption were also significantly reduced. When the start time went back to 8: 00 AM, all the

Having a later school start time can increase a student’s academic grades and awareness. Thirty-three percent of teens say that they fell asleep in class. Even though this is a small portion of teens, falling asleep in class shouldn’t even happen once. Also, this means they are getting less than what they need,(eight to nine hours of sleep a night). A school needs to pack as much teaching time as they can in a day, but if that means waking up a student at a time so early, then there's no point.When a student doesn’t sleep as much, students are not aware as they would be if they had a good night’s rest. If students had this sleep, the would pay more attention in class. Therefor, a student would have better grades.

Delaying the time that school starts could affect the amount of sleep that students receive. An average teen is supposed to obtain 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep each night. There is a national debate of whether or not to start school at a later time. Students, Parents, teachers, and even bus drivers all need their sleep. Why not start school earlier if teens are struggling to get to bed from after school

In fact, a study in 1998 conducted by Brown University tracked 10th graders switching to a 7:20 start time one hour earlier than their previous start time. Unfortunately, almost all of them went to bed at the same time as they had before. Fewer than half of them got even 7 hours of sleep. Even Anne Wheaton, lead author/epidemiologist of the CDC Division of Population Health agrees. “Getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance.”

Hafner (2017) states that “Beginning in the 1970s, many American high school began starting earlier than ever before…” (Hafner 2017) Not only do my parents have stories of difficulty with sleep and school so do my grandparents. The fact that there has not been any change since this information has come to light is mind boggling. My personal experience with this issue runs deep, I was active in a lot of after school activities including clubs and sports teams. My dad started at around 6:00 when I was forced to be awoken by my parents because I physically could not climb out of bed on my own. This caused stress on my family because of how exhausted I was, it was a vicious cycle that couldn’t be broken. My day started early and ended late

High school students spend seven hours a day in school, five days a week. To put this into a greater perspective that is 35 hours a week, 154 hours a month and approximately 1,358 hours a year. Numerous high school students feel that delaying the school start time by one hour would benefit their grades and mood because of sleep gained. It is important for those challenging the current start time to take into consideration that one who spends 35 hours a week in school may be sleep deprived due to other reasons, such as time management. High school starting an hour later would not be beneficial because scheduling would be difficult for parents and time would be drained from extra activities. There are various alternatives for tired students other than a later start time.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to receive an extra hour of sleep each morning, to swap school start times with your younger sibling? It would be nice to gain an extra hour of rest, but late start school is an unnecessary luxury. We do not need to start school later and it would be difficult to change our system that currently functions perfectly. Starting school later will cause complications in our schedules, for buses, and for after school activities.

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

The problem is simple: school starts entirely too early. No one in their right mind wants to get up at the crack of dawn every day to go spend their day in a school for 7 hours. According to a report by the Centers of Disease Control, “in more than 40 states, at least 75 percent of public schools start earlier than 8:30 A.M.” (Richmond). It’s common sense that more sleep equates to better learning habits. “‘Getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance,’ said Anne Wheaton, the study’s lead author and epidemiologist in the CDC’s Division of Population Health said in a statement. ‘Early school start times, however, are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep they need.’” (Lewis). Not many

An important issue that is not always addressed adequately is changing school start times. However, there should be a focus on this, because start times impact student performance. According to the Center of Disease Control, kids need a minimum of 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep each day. However, some schools start earlier than 8:30 and many do not consider that some students work late at night; the chances of getting the proper amount of sleep is almost impossible. Therefore, school start times need to be altered, so that students get the proper amount of sleep to enhance their learning.

A big reason school’s may enjoy having a later start time, is because it can contribute to the school’s success. A later start time can improve the school’s overall test scores (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). Students can learn their best when they are not tired or drowsy. The School Start Later — Healthy Hours campaign stated that, “Academic improvements have been shown, and overall school climate has been measurably improved when high schools have restored later start times,” (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). The sleep researcher mentioned earlier, Wendy Troxel, said in her presentation that when kid’s are woken up by an alarm, they are literally robbed of their dreams. Dreams are associated with learning development. In order for student’s to use the most of their brains, they need to be receiving the right amount of good quality sleep. Not only do test scores rise, but so does the graduation rate, which is a major problem in today’s generation (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). In contribution to the student success, later start times could drastically improve the school’s success. Later start times have increased attendance around