Lack Of Sleep Deprivation In High School Children

Do you wake up in the mornings to your alarm and snooze it because you are still tired and need more sleep? Many students have complained about the time you are required to get up for school. Most teens are arguing that it is healthier for them to get more sleep. In the article “Despite proven benefits, Starting School Later Remains ‘A Tough Sell’” by Tim Walker, claims that “...letting students sleep and starting school later can lead to better health and academic outcomes.”. Students should be given more time to sleep because it is good for them.

During this week’s article, “Most High School Students Are Sleep Deprived”, by Sylviane Duval, The author claims throughout the article that most high school students are sleep deprived. The author brings up valid points throughout the article and even gives ideas on how to solve this high school sleep deficient epidemic. Throughout this paper I will point out some of the major strengths and weaknesses I found in this article.

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.

Going to bed at 2:00 in the morning and waking up at 6:30 AM to go to school is a nightmare for anyone. Unfortunately, this situation is far too common in today’s schools. But have you ever wondered how insufficient sleep affects your everyday life? Schools must start later. With early start times thwarting students’ health and safety, adolescents needing more sleep in general, and teens having trouble sleeping early, later start times are essential.

In the first place, students are not getting enough sleep. In the article “Should School Start later” by Lisa M. Herrington [20] “According to the National Sleep Foundation “59% of 6th-8th graders and 87% of high schoolers aren't getting the sleep they require”. This quote shows that students are not getting the sleep they need. And kids must wake up early how are they getting the sleep we need. “So why don’t kids just go to sleep earlier? It’s not that simple” Says Danny Lewin, a sleep specialist at Children's National Health system in Washington, D.C. “Adolescents have a deeply programmed biological clock to go to bed later and wake later” Says

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

Studies show that teens get 8-10 hours of sleep are better in learning and get better test scores. “when schools in Jessamine County in Kentucky changed their start times from 7:40 a.m. to 8:40 a.m., attendance immediately went up, as did scores on standardized tests.” (source #4)” Another thing about kids’ academic success is better when school starts later is according to researchers is a fully rested teen have improved memory, reaction time, mood and athletic performance. “Studies of later start times have consistently reported benefits to adolescent sleep, health and learning using a wide variety of methodological approaches.

In many districts, elementary and high schools start classes at about the same time each day. However, the students that attend these schools have very different sleep needs because they are at different stages in their development. Scientific research has shown that high schools should start classes later to address the major problems created by sleep deprivation among teenagers. By doing so, the health and learning abilities of adolescents would greatly improve.

Many students today face a widespread chronic health problem: sleep deprivation. It’s important for teens to get 8 hours of sleep every night, but with having to get up early for school and staying up late doing homework most teens get around 4-5 hours causing them to be sleep deprived. Not sleeping enough and not sleeping well is very unhealthy, especially as a teen. As a matter of fact, there is quite a price to pay. School should start later because students would be more alert, get better grades, and have better mental and physical health.

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

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

“It’s 6:00 a.m., the alarm blares loudly in my ear, I struggle to open my eyes and drag myself out of bed, I finally wake up, get ready, arrive at school, and before I know it, I am asleep in first period.” “Two out of three U.S. high school students sleep less than 8 hours on school nights (Yeager).” According to Dr. Robert, an associate professor of internal medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School teens need at least nine hours of sleep. Getting a sufficient amount of sleep is crucial to be healthy and to function properly (Holohan). When teenagers reach a certain age, their bodies sleep cycles start to shift. Teenagers naturally want to fall asleep later and wake up later because of their bodies “inner clocks (Yeager).” Schools should start later in the morning because it can improve student’s academic performance, reduce teen car crash rates, and helps prevent emotional disorders.

In order to do so, schools all over the world should start at a later time in order for students to get better grades, increase the amount of sleep students need, and to just be more healthy as a whole. For high school students, sleep is the biggest contribution to do well academically. To prevent a drop in grades and grade point averages, less car crash fatalities, development of bad habits and behavioral attitudes, it can make the world a better place, even just slightly, to know that teenagers are more alert and awake of their actions. This goes to show that sleep is very important and that schools should adjust their schedules to take care of this serious

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

High school and Middle schools should start later in the day. This has been an idea that has floated around for a good amount of time. Teens between the ages of 14-18 every weekday wake up around 6:00 in the morning to go to school for 7:30am or 8:00am. Throughout the day the kids are found to be tired and just want to sleep. The following reasons support this statement; Teachers will find that there students are tired and less alert than they should be. These are signs of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation might not seem like a very bad problem but it really is and can cause some long lasting problems.