School Should Start Later

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

Have you ever wondered about the effects that would be brought if school started later? At the moment, school clearly begins too early. This is a problem that is unquestionably bringing negative affects to many students. Many schools throughout the country are addressing this problem by considering school schedule changes including later start times for middle and high schools. Research indicates there are unfavorable effects to current school schedules, as well as well as positive effects to delayed start times. To best meet the needs of teens, school should start later.

Despite the overwhelming evidence given by current research, many people refuse to change school start times because of the lack of noticeable impact some schools had or the impact it had on some people’s schedules. Pannoni cites a statement by the Iowa City Community School District which found that “the later start time . . . [did] not reduce the number of tardy students by any appreciable amount.” The principal of Ballard High School agreed by saying that he “would be surprised to see large improvements in either attendance or grade data compared with past years” (Pannoni). Many schools refused to change because of how the later start and dismissal times would affect extracurricular activities and students with jobs. This change would also interfere with bus schedules and childcare habits. However, these seem like small problems that can be overcome when the results are that “later school start times were associated with students sleeping longer at night, less tardiness, having higher test scores, being less depressed, using less caffeine and other drugs, . . . and experiencing fewer morning car crashes” (Fenwick).

The school day should start later in order improve students’ mental health. Survey results have consistently indicated that middle level and high school students who start school at 7:15 a.m. or earlier obtain less total sleep on school nights due to earlier rise times in comparison to students at later-starting schools. () This is just the beginning of the negative impacts that early start times have on students. By starting school at a later time, students’ brains will function better, their grades and learning increases, and will be more mentally stable.

The denial of it has been used to torture many times. If you go without for too long, you will experience psychosis-like symptoms, along with long-term memory impairment, impaired cognitive functions, depression, high blood pressure, and probable mortality (a.k.a. death). As a society, not only to we withhold it from ourselves, but we impose an impoverished state on others. The mysterious formula? Sleep.

Almost 10% of U.S. high schools start before 7:30 a.m. Over 20% of middle schools start class at 7:45 a.m. or earlier. This is leaving students everywhere overwhelmed and tired. This can lead to tremendous effects on their health and grades. Research shows that only do later start times improve those things, but ends up increasing the school's yearly income in the long run. For these reasons, schools should make their hours later because it can affect students grades and health in a positive way.

Decades of sleep research confirm what parents know: It's hard for teens to wake up early. Some high schools now start later, about 8:30 a.m., to improve

The first reason school should. not start at a later time is because there would be longer days which would cut down on time for extracurricular

Transportation is a major issue that would be impacted by a later school start time. For many school districts, including my own, buses are reused for the elementary and high school students. The problem with shared buses is that if the high school start time changes, so would the elementary start time. Elementary students

In the article Our kids need more sleep by Valerie Erde, argues that schools should start later to accommodate student’s adequate sleep schedules. This article talks about all the tremendous benefits teens and children receive from getting more sleep. I strongly believe that schools should be starting a bit later to help students receive more sleep.

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

Finally, having school start later helps promote the safety of the kids. When school starts early, teens usually don’t get enough sleep.

In discussions of whether or not schools should start later, one controversial issue has been that it gets in the way of parents work schedules. People who believe that it’s too much of an inconvenience claim that it’s never too soon to start getting used to an early schedule. On the other hand, those who believe schools should start later assert that it’s much better for a student's concentration and overall health. My own view is there are more benefits than negatives and we should really start to consider such a change.

We live in an age when many growing adolescents are constantly fighting their natural body clocks. It could potentially be one of the biggest issues facing our high school systems. Many school’s across America have started to push back their school start times. Is it worth it? The answer is yes. School should start later in order to unlock our nation’s high school potential.

The problem with school starting later is that there is different time zones in certain counties