Should School Start Later?

Extracurricular activities and late nights lead teenagers not to be fully awake at school. According to the National Sleep Foundation “The roots of the problem include poor teen sleep habits that do not allow for enough hours of quality sleep; hectic schedules with afterschool activities and jobs, homework hours and family obligations; and a clash between societal demands, such as early school start times, and

Teenagers need more sleep. If schools start school later, students would be less tired. A study of eight schools in Minnesota started school 1 hour later and grades and morale went up and tardiness went down. It has been scientifically proven in a test they did in Minnesota that 8 schools stated later and most of the students grades went up they were happier and everyone seemed more

If we start school later then kids test scores will increase, they wont fall asleep in class and they would get the appropriate amount of sleep. According to upfrontmagazine.com, nNew research suggests that later high school starts have widespread benefits. Sleep experts at the university of Mminnesota studied eight high schools before and after the moved to later start times. They found that the later start time, the better off students were on measures like mental health, car crash rates, attendance, and in some schools, grades and standerized test scores. This is an accurate example because it comes from sleep experts at the university of minnesota that have actually studied this topic. With later starting time you’ll have more time to sleep and will be able to pay attention in class so you can get that good grade.

Yet still, parents and students are pushing for later start times in schools to accommodate to the natural schedule. Starting school at 9-10am rather 6-8am would drastically increase a student’s performance in school and would allow for more productivity and higher grades. Proper cognitive function would allow for happier and healthier students and could allow for a more positive social environment in

There has always been a controversy as to if the school day should start later on in the morning or not. The University of Minnesota study shows that schools who have already changed the beginning of the school day to later have found that only a third of students actually received eight or more hours of sleep while the students who received less than eight hours reported to have more symptoms of depression, higher counts of caffeine, and substance abuse with alcohol and drugs. In “Should the School Day Start Later?” written by Michael Gonchar, Gonchar writes that, “New evidence suggests that a later start to the school day could have all sorts of benefits…” Some of those benefits could include the decrease of tardiness, increase in attendance, test scores and everyday grades, more positive mental health, and even car crash rates. All in all the research and studies over if the school day should start later has been in discussion for years.

Secondly, this could help stop child obesity and diseases. Sarah Mckibben also say in her article “Wake Up Call”, “Insufficient sleep in teens is associated with obesity…” This proves that if school started later than obesity in children should go down along with a list of other things that are caused by school starting at 8:00. If school started later than the health of children would be better than it is now. This would also help with other problems like fighting, drinking, smoking, and suicidal tendencies.

A study in Minneapolis showed that when school hours were pushed back, attendance was raised in all grades. This has not only helped attendances, but also help higher students and parents emotions. These later starting times improved sleeping hours which made students happier and more alert at school. This alertness helped make better grades in classes that would normally be troublesome.

"Sleep deprivation among american teenagers is an american epidemic," says Wendy Troxel, a sleep researcher. What she is trying to say is that the fact that kids all over america lose the sleep they need is a widespread problem. She even has a entire ‘Ted Talk’ saying how bad sleep is for children's learning and developing brains, and how school is responsible for many of those problems. Kids need to have sleep to function and get good grades.

First of all, if all schools started later, kids wouldn’t be so fatigued in the morning. As things are now, students are running late in the morning because they are not getting enough rest. In addition, school starting later is very beneficial because kids wouldn’t nap so much in class. Students need a total of 8-10 hours of sleep on school days to be awake in the morning. 33% of teens report dozing off in class every day. 73% of high school

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

Ever wonder if school would be easier to get through if it started Later in the morning? School is already a struggle for some students with depression, anxiety, stuff happening at home, and learning disabilities, so maybe school starting later is a good idea.Although it seems like a good it may not be as great as it sounds. There are many reasons why school shouldn’t start later in the morning but the two most important would be that students wouldn’t get as much sleep as they need and wouldn’t have time to find or even get a decent job.

School starting later would benefit students in a numerous amount of ways. There are various scientific studies that are being performed that show that pushing school back just an hour would make a huge impact on students education. There are many pros, but there are also several cons. The good thing is the good outweighs the bad.

Kids would be willing to go to sleep with more sleep. A lot of kids have many things to do after school such as: get homework finished, study for a test or quizzes, go to work, attend church events, and play sports.Students would have more time to get their homework done and more time to study as well as have the chance to have a social life outside of school. In high school tests is a big grade usually in each and every students class but in order for the students to get a high grade on the test they need to have the ability to study but if they are tired from getting up for school so early in the morning they will just want to go to bed and forget about studying and then they will just go to class and just hope they do well enough to pass. In a study by the National Parenting Center when they compared a hundred and fifty high students having high grade point average with their peers with lower grade point averages, most of the higher gpa students woke up later on school days, woke up earlier on the weekend, and had less night time awakenings (“Poor sleep, poor grades”). Having school start early means that the morning classes are early as well and most students today come in late just so they can sleep in a little longer so the morning classes will have less attendance. It will give them more time to get to school on time and not be late and frustrated.

Schools that start before 8 a.m. are a major reason students aren’t getting adequate sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation teenagers need on average 8 ½ - 9 ½ hours of sleep a night(Schute, Nancy). Realistically students rarely get that much sleep. When students don’t get adequate sleep it has the ability to affect their attention span, memory, problem-solving ability, and mood(Rosenberg, Russell). Are these students actually expected to pay attention, learn, solve problems, and have an acceptable attitude when they wake up sleep deprived? With a sleep cycle that changes once students hit puberty and an increase in the production of melatonin its nearly impossible for teens to fall asleep before 10:30 p.m.(Edwards, Finley). In my own experience I don’t even get tired until around 11:30 p.m. and barely fall asleep before 12, so it makes it extremely difficult to wake up at 6 a.m. and get ready for the day.

" Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," said Ben Franklin. While most experts believe that a teen should get 9 hours of sleep, only 15% get that much sleep. With schools starting as early as 7:00 a.m (School Start Time and Sleep), most teenagers are only getting 7 hours of sleep (Sleep in Adolescents (13-18 Years)). In fact, " 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" (School Start Time and Sleep). When entering school, many teenagers look like zombies with their eyes half shut and posture sagging. This lack of sleep causes many problems, both physically and mentally. Therefore, in order to help students throughout the nation, school times should be changed and started later.