Sleep Patterns In High School

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

Research has shown that early school start times don’t support adolescent’ sleep needs whereas later school start times have positive effects on mental, physical, and emotional health as well as academic performance. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention along with scientists have advised school boards and administrators to change their school’s start time to 8:30 a.m.. Despite advisements, 83% of schools nationwide begin classes before 8:30 a.m.

As a result of a changing body and mind, adolescent sleep cycles have different needs than those of adults or younger children. As a matter of fact, Biologically, sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence -- meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm (“Teens”). In addition to biological change in sleep patterns, teenagers also tend to have eccentric sleep cycles. Obtaining less than healthy hours of sleep during the school week and then catching up on their sleep on the weekends. Most teenagers during the school week, do not get the suggested amount of sleep. In fact, according to a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 80% of teenagers do not get the suggested amount of sleep of 9 hours on school nights (“School Start”). With changing bodies and minds, along with an increased amount of schoolwork and extracurricular activities, teenagers need more sleep than children of a younger age. Experts believe that moving back the start time of school for high school students will improve grades, test scores, and the overall health and personality of many students.

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.

The CDC press release reported fewer “than 1 in 5 middle and high schools in the U.S. began the school day at the recommended 8:30 AM start time or later” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1). Anne Wheaton an epidemiologist in the CDC’s division of Population Health explained that getting enough sleep is important for students “health safety, and academic performance“ however “Early school start times are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep they need” (1). The American Medical Association issued a 2016 policy statement supporting delayed school start times to improve adolescent wellness. Specifically the new policy calls on “school districts across the United States to implement middle and high school start times no earlier than 8:30 a.m.” (American Medical Association 1). As with the other health organizations the AMA mentioned health concerns as a primary reason for recommending later school start times. “Sleep deprivation is a growing public health issue affecting our nation’s adolescents, putting them at risk for mental, physical and emotional distress and disorders” (1). The AMA believes delaying school

School districts expect us to wake up half an hour after the crack of dawn, go to school and while groggy and sleep deprived, and still expect us to surrender our full attention in each and every one of our 6 periods. Sending sleep-deprived teenagers to school as early as 5:30 is dangerously unhealthy, unsafe, and evidently counterproductive. According to the American Academy ofPediatrics, without receiving the appropriate amount of sleep teenagers find it 60% harder to focus in class. Lack of sleep can lead to excessive fatigue, emotional distress, laziness, obesity and a lowered perception of quality of

Many high school students wander into school each day shuffling around and trying not to pass out in their classes. In order to cut back on sleep-deprived teens, we must follow through with this solution; it would give students enough time to go to bed early and wake up at an appropriate time. According to Sleep Foundation, teenagers require eight to ten hours of sleep and are not getting that with the current schedule. Many teenagers have discombobulated biological clocks and need the opportunity to adjust their sleeping schedule as they see fit. If this plan were to be put into practice, more positive attitudes would emerge from schools all over America due to their fulfilled need of sleep, which would give teachers, students, principals, counselors, and even parents a more productive start to each day. On the other hand, I realize that the opposing side of this intelligent solution may proclaim that some teenagers would abuse this and go to bed even later, but people must also realize that a large amount of teenagers who wish to succeed academically would gladly not abuse this and respect this privilege; although there would be some teenagers to mistreat this, it is up to the maturity level of the student, and they choose whether they want to succeed or

Due to lack of sleep, drowsy driving is common along with risky behaviors and poor attendance. Research shows that a positive outcome from later school start times is it can improve physical and mental health. Students are sleep deprived which increases the risk of driving accidents and dangerous decisions such as the use of drugs and alcohol (Reddy). This shows that the amount of sleep teenagers get can alter the way they behave and can even cause them to make poor choices. Also, “A study by an economist after 146,000 middle school students in North Carolina started school an hour later showed math and reading scores went up two to three percentile points. In addition, students watched TV 15 minutes less per day and spent 17 minutes more on homework per week. In 2011, a study of first- year cadets at the Air Force Academy showed a similar correlation. Freshman take the same courses, but those who began before 8 a.m. scored lower in all classes than whose who started an hour later” (Manning). This quote proves that when students start at a later time, they have more energy and score better on tests Also, children are spending more time on their school work which causes a decrease in the time spent watching TV. Since studies show an advancement in teenagers’ behavior and academic grades, schools should start the day later in the

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

With nearly ⅔ of the adolescent population getting under seven hours of sleep a night (at least eight point five is needed) sleep deprivation in teens is becoming a major problem. And early school start times don’t help. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 43% of U.S. high school students have a starting time of 8:00 or earlier. This forces kids to wake up earlier; depriving them of their essential sleep hours. As a result, there are multiple potentially harmful effects.

Many adults say that sleep is crucial to a human during its adolescent years. It is a proven fact that teens need an average of 8.5 to 9.5 hours a sleep each night, yet two-thirds of high school students are receiving fewer than seven hours of sleep (Howard, “Wake up Calls”). Some might ask, “Why aren’t teens getting the required amount of sleep they need?” This is because adults frequently advise teens to be involved in school activities, receive good grades, turn homework in on time, and maintain a healthy social life. Now, teens do what is advised by adults by taking Advanced Placement classes, playing sports, participating in extracurricular activities, and even getting after school jobs; but they still fall short on getting the required amount of sleep at night. The daily cycle of a teen involved in many school activities consists of not getting home until 7:00 P.M., eating dinner, doing loads of homework, using social media, going to sleep at 11:00 P.M. or later, then waking up the next morning at 6:00 A.M. to get ready for school. As you can see, an involved teen is only getting seven or fewer hours of sleep at night. Since getting an inadequate amount of sleep each night

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.

Over the years, many high school students complain about not getting enough sleep. This topic is controversial because of the possible downfalls that could occur after postponing school by an hour. While there are a few concerns with moving to later start times, hundreds of high schools across the country are starting class later and students have still managed to attend club meetings and finish homework by a reasonable hour. According to the article, "New research suggests that later high school starts have widespread benefits". With this in mind, I believe that high schools should start later due to the benefits gained by high school students.

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

Adolescents don’t choose to stay up late; they do know the consequences of being tired the next day. “The starting time of school puts limits on the time available for sleep, this is a nonnegotiable limit established largely without concern