Not Enough Sleep Here’s a look into an average high school classroom during first period. Kids are slowly shuffling in, reluctant to take their seats. Some grip their coffee cups, depending on those 2 cups of caffeine to get them through the day. Others have given up completely, with their head on the desk and a small puddle of drool forming on the desk. A majority of the kids will arrive just as the bell is rings, the ones who hit the snooze button too many times. While others who take their time in the morning, walk in just before the period ends. Why is this classroom such a dull scene? I forgot to mention it’s 7:50 in the morning and it’s a classroom full of teenagers, who are the most exhausted generation of adolescents. A …show more content…
As a person gets older, the amount of sleep needed each night gets less. Teenagers are an exception to that rule. The years from 15 to 18 packs on a whole new level of stress. Exams, homework, after school clubs, jobs, college, relationships, it’s all running through our heads at every second of every day. With a jammed packed schedule, hormones running wild, and teachers loading up the work, we could use some slack. If that could come in the form of a better night’s sleep, we’d be eternally grateful. This schedule change might impact after school sports and clubs, but not by much. It would only involve starting games and practices an hour later, a mere cost for that extra hour of sleep. The bus drivers would simply switch which kids they pick up first. The parents would be grateful to have their little kids out of the house earlier. The students would reap the benefits in their test scores. The small price for this change would benefit everyone. The hours of school should be changed. Let’s be thoughtful towards teenagers and give them an extra hour of sleep each night. It won’t hurt the younger kids to get up earlier, as most of them wake up at dawn anyway. Unless you want to see groggy kids walking into school, who pulled all nighters studying, and can’t stay awake long enough to take their test. More sleep equals improved
First, schools should not change their start times because it helps parents as well. One reason how that supports my claim is older kids can help younger children. When kids in middle and high school get home before their parents so they
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
Schools all around the nation have starting times for school, that are too early for the students and teachers alike. Schools starting times should be 8:30 in the morning or later, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Sleep loss has become more common in children due to early start times which only gives them 6-7 hours of sleep a night when growing children should have 8-9 hours a night. children suffer the chronic loss of sleep due to the hormonal roller coaster that you call puberty, which only lets them begin to go into a REM sleep around 10 p.m. . It’s also been proven that adolescent children suffer from highers risks of physical health problems, mental health problems, lower test scores, missing school, substance abuse, and being in a car crash due to sleep deprivation. Students end up having to get up before 6:30 to get ready and catch the bus or walk to school, but when you have to study for hours after school, eat, clean up, participate in extracurricular activities, including sports and clubs, and do chores in less than 4 hours to get the sleep they require to be healthy mentally and physically it’s almost impossible. School should start later to better our future generations, with more sleep we could have more positive members of societies.
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).
Research has shown that teenagers experience a change in their internal sleep clocks so that waking up early and going to sleep early are difficult. I agree with the decision to change school times and what it has to offer. This would not only help the teenagers with many things but also accommodate the parents schedules too. I believe that if the school system were to alter the times so that High Schoolers were to wake up later then it would fix various conflicts; teen depression, lack of awareness, and it allows parents to work later.
Some people may ask, “Why don’t teenagers just go to bed earlier, instead of having school later?” This is a common concern for parents and teachers as well. The fact is, adolescents have different sleeping patterns than adults do. Throughout the day, teenagers are most tired during the morning, and most alert at night (Cerve 4). “The body’s internal clock shifts after puberty, making it
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.
Imagine going to school being half asleep,High Schools should begin later in the day to accommodate for students to get natural sleep they need, Teenagers usually are not aware during the day due to sleep schedules. Sleep also affects the health of teens who do not get enough rest. High schools should change their schedules to help students become more advanced in school.
Having a later school start time can increase a student’s academic grades and awareness. Thirty-three percent of teens say that they fell asleep in class. Even though this is a small portion of teens, falling asleep in class shouldn’t even happen once. Also, this means they are getting less than what they need,(eight to nine hours of sleep a night). A school needs to pack as much teaching time as they can in a day, but if that means waking up a student at a time so early, then there's no point.When a student doesn’t sleep as much, students are not aware as they would be if they had a good night’s rest. If students had this sleep, the would pay more attention in class. Therefor, a student would have better grades.
Schools should adopt an later start time. This would improve students grades and mental state because they would get more sleep. According to the article, Sleepy in Seattle: Schools move start time to manage teens' need for zzz's, more and more school districts around the country are trying to give students later start times. This is because of a few reasons. First of all, the American Academy of Pediatrics, a professional group of pediatricians, say that later start times can improve students life in many ways. Also, the CDC or Center of Disease Control, pushed for later start times.The CDC is a government agency, who's goal is to protect public health and safety, pushed for later school start times. This is because research show that later
First, schools should keep the same schedule they have the students on now because it prepares them in the future when they get a job. Most jobs now require you to wake up early and be there on time. So waking up early for school is going to help them out in the future. Also changing the schedule would mess things up for students because they are already
Not getting enough sleep can affect health, safety, and academic performance. What school start times are on average is 7:59 a.m. but should start at 8:30 a.m. said by American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Third, safety is a huge aspect to this topic. There will be less drowsy driving which will minimize accidents involving students, also 31.1% of student who don’t get enough sleep feel depressed or “ sad and hopeless “ all the time well 16.8% of those students have seriously considered suicide. Having later start times will help improve things like after school activities but some say that it will not be beneficial for a schedule change. Later start times will benefit students a lot in the
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
To begin, school starting as early as it is, teens don’t get enough sleep. Not getting enough sleep is affecting the body negatively. Teens usually get six to seven hours of sleep but Dr. Cora Breuner says, “ We truly believe that our teenagers are getting six to seven hours of sleep a night, and they need eight to 10 (Shute).” Sleep deficit is what most teenagers face. Teens try to redress this by consuming caffeine. Caffeinating to get through the day or trying to sleep more on weekends cannot fix this problem (Shute). In fact it makes it worse.
Teens are so full of potential, so full of life, and so…..sleepy. Research shows that teens do not get the sleep they need on a regular basis. Because of the shift in body clocks, after puberty, it takes longer for teens to go to sleep. This resulting sleep deprivation can produce mood swings, substance abuse such as NyQuil, and immune disorders, as well as busy schedules, exams, and active social lives on top of all this an earlier high school starting times this makes teens suffer from sleep deprivation as well as other health and academic problems (Cline). Teens suffering from fatigue often can’t pay attention