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Persuasive Essay On Starting School Later

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Starting School Later Did you know that as many as 28% of teens fall asleep during their first period classes? Many of these kids would be greatly helped if they had ample time to sleep which many schools’ schedules just don’t make time for. All schools need to change to a later start time, to the benefit of the students’ health and academics. A teen’s sleep schedule differs greatly from an adult’s, and schools and parents need to take that into account. Teens only even begin to get tired around 10:45 p.m., when their bodies start producing the sleep chemical, melatonin, as said in the article “High schools with late start times help teens but bus schedules and after-school can conflict”, Wahlstrom (the director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota) says, “research shows teens don't get sleepy until around 10:45 p.m., when their bodies begin to secrete melatonin, but once they fall asleep, they stay asleep for about nine hours and 15 minutes, waking at around 8 a.m."It's a factor of human biology that studies have replicated in Brazil, Italy, Israel and Korea," Wahlstrom said. "All have found identical sleep-wake patterns in teenagers. It's a human phenomenon, not geared to any culture." Schools need to take this into account, because if teens can’t follow their natural sleep cycle, they won’t do as well in any area. No one can function nearly as well, or barely at all if they are exhausted from a lack of sleep.

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