Later Starting School

According to a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 83.6 million Americans are sleep deprived (Almendrala). Among these sleepy Americans are teens, the most vulnerable to sleep deprivation, primarily due to demanding school schedules. For decades, school boards and administrators have contemplated the question of whether their school should start later. On the one hand, it is said that the change would interfere with parents’ work schedules, and transportation logistics, causing stress on families. It would also interfere with students’ extracurricular activities, after school sports, student employment, and reduce the time to access public areas such as libraries. On the other hand, a change

With early school start times, students tend not to have enough sleep. National Sleep Foundation and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend an eight to ten-hour sleep, which is sufficient. However, 69 percent of the students in the United States sleep less than eight hours per night, which is insufficient. It affects students negatively through health, behaviors, and grades. The lack of sleep promotes students to become sleepy, defenseless, and lead to the inability to concentrate, which may cause injuries and lack of knowledge in school. This dilemma has been around for years and years in the United States. Schools should start later to avoid this dilemma because it provides students with more time to sleep and an efficient work-and-rest

There are many learning benefits when students start school later. The research, conducted by a sleep expert with Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., found that a delay in school start time of only 30 minutes was associated with significant improvements in adolescent alertness, mood and health( 1 ). The more sleep we get we can learn more and it would be better. The more

Parents and teachers constantly tell students that they should concentrate on school and homework, but how can they do so when they cannot focus? Most of the time this lack of focus is caused by sleep deprivation which is induced by school activities and work, both of which cannot be avoided. Schools expect students to wake up early, be lectured for 8 hours, and then stay up late with sports, music, and/or homework. These tired students with large workloads have risks to their bodies and minds. Allowing schools to start later would be beneficial to students’ health, safety, and academic performance.

However, if schools started later there could be a chance of reducing sleep deprivation in teens. Teens generally need an average of 9 hours per night, yet they receive less than 7 hours of sleep. Today, the major issue adolescents face is chronic sleep. Mary Carskadon’s team found out that students who showed up for morning classes before 7:30 were seriously sleep-deprived, forced their bodies to be awake and run contrary to their internal clocks. In addition, the lack of sleep can cause a student to fall asleep in class. According to a survey done by the CDC, 20-30% of high school students fall asleep in school each day. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that, “School districts should optimize sleep in students and urge high schools and middle schools to aim for start times that allow students the opportunity to achieve optimal levels of sleep to improve physical and mental health.” Also, a major study at the University of Minnesota have shown that the consequences of insufficient sleep are associated with obesity, immune system disruption, smoking, violence, and depression. Consequently, early school start times can result in fewer hours of sleep as students don’t compensate this with earlier

Students all over the United States complain about the start times of the school day. Due to the school start times, students are often unable to receive the amount of sleep recommended by their teachers, as well as being unable to complete everyday activities from lack of energy. It has been proven that delaying school start times causes an increase in students academic performance because it allows students to sleep for longer periods, improve their moods and behavior, and fully apply themselves more in their everyday tasks and functioning.

This article by the National Sleep Foundation describes how adolescents today are not getting the recommended amount of sleep and in return do not perform appropriately or at their maximum level at school. Through different scientific studies it was discovered that adolescent NATURALLY fall asleep at 11 P.M. or later. One study looked at the melatonin secretion in patients and how it occurred later at night in adolescents. Through research the National Sleep Foundation has urged schools to synchronize school clock with student body clocks (If teens naturally fall asleep at 11 P.M. and require 9.5 hours of sleep, school should start approximately at 9:00-10:00 A.M., 1 to 3 hours after current SC school start times). This sources supports my claim to start school later and provides support research about the negative aspects of sleep deprivation in adolescents and the importance of reforming school start times

When students do receive enough sleep they have enhanced performance physically, mentally and academically. A study from the NSF (national sleep foundation) found that students who had a school day starting 1 hour later

Significant facts exist that confirm that school start times are too early. The amount of sleep children get is a key factor to how they do in school. Energy is a huge necessity for kids and teens to concentrate during the school day. If students aren’t concentrating in class because they are sleep deprived, they are missing crucial information that they need to get good, or even average test grades. With early wakeup times, it makes it very challenging for students to get the ideal amount of sleep to do well in school. For example, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend for kids to get at least 8.5-9.5 hours of good sleep. The AAP warned that sleep deprivation can "threaten academic success,

Across America school starts on average, at eight o’clock in the morning. When walking through school hallways full of kids on a typical school morning, one may see sleep deprived and tired students not looking forward to their early morning classes, waiting for the bell to ring to signal them to go to class. Students brains are not at their full potential at eight o’clock in the morning because the brain is not yet fully awake. Starting school at eight o’clock is too early for students’ minds. David A. Sousa confirms, “Teenagers are not getting enough sleep. Sleep deprivation affects their ability to store information, increases irritability, and leads to fatigue, which can cause accidents” (Sousa 117). Starting school

You're in bed, feeling serene, having the perfect nights' sleep of your life. You wish it could go on eternally. Suddenly ''BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!", your alarm clock goes off and you comprehend that it's time for school, sound familiar? The subject of start times of school has been a very popular topic.  As many people already know, sleep is an exceedingly significant habit. As stated in the previous newscast, "Sleep physical, emotional, and mental health." Furthermore, students struggle with this habit.

Sleep is, without a doubt, one of the uttermost needs for the human body to function to its full potential. Every early August, groggy teens begin another year of being forced to fight their bodies natural sleep cycle. If surveyed, most high school students would all agree that school starts way too early in the morning. All schools should be enforced to change the start time of classes to help adolescents become less stressed from lack of sleep.With school times starting later, students would improve their health and grades, have more time to achieve things, and have a safer place to come home to.

Picture this, students sit like sloths in a cold, dim lit room, tapping their pencil to the beat of their pulse struggling to stay awake. Daydreams fill their brains looking out the window wishing to be somewhere else, inattentive to the world around them. Eyes stare deadly into their papers hoping for the bell to ring and class to end. Grades plummet, self-esteem drops, and a continuous cycle with no end phases the new generation into depression and anxiety. Late night on their phones, studying through the night, watching their clock tick past midnight until the morning sun, only to wake up sleepless with a whole school day ahead of them filled with tests, quizzes, and learning. Many think of this as a part of growing up and life, but in reality, it is torturous. So, who wouldn’t love to wake up with barely any sleep and go to school? We can only imagine how ecstatic and lively our students would be to get up for school if they were able to get a sufficient amount of sleep every night.

Almost every day high school students are waking up around six o’clock in the morning to get ready for school, some even earlier than that. Nearly every morning students are waking up without adequate sleep. If sleep is one of the most essential needs of the body in order to grow and develop, shouldn’t we be more aware of how much it affects students everyday performance? The ways in which students are affected by sleep-deprivation is precisely why school needs to start later.

medical schools and found that there was a serious lack of formal education regarding sleep and sleep disorders” (Mindell, 1994). Now, that the issue has been arising, there have been more and more studies done over the past few years to determine the effects of school start time has on students and what the effect of pushing the time back would be.