The Generation that has it EASY

Staying up until 1am to finish math homework and studying for that huge history test next class is pretty routine for some teens. Juggling school, sports, a social life, and other extracurriculars is tough, and teens are already in a critical period in their life. It is the time period in which teens grow and learn the most, and sets them up for a bright future. Staying healthy both mentally and physically is imperative, and sleep is probably the most important. Schools starting as early as 7am limits a teen’s potential. If schools were to start later, the benefits would be endless. Schools starting later improves both physical and mental health of students, keeps the individual and those around them safer, and improves students performance in school and sports.

Early start times negatively affect teens in many different aspects. Many people say school starting early has worked fine in the past years, we have learned to adjust to it. Change will be hard, why change school times now? Yes, this is true, it will be a change, but it is a change worth it in the long run. Although we have adjusted to early school start times, it does not mean the current schedule is best for teens. School can begin simply too early considering most teens don’t get the opportunity to fulfill their sleep needs. This is often caused by homework, a busy social life, extracurricular activities, and family all combined. Sleep is well needed, but the necessary sleep amount is lost with early start times. Additionally, current school schedules are not benefiting teens; it comes with discouraging effects, there is evidence to support this. The National Sleep

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.

fatigue overwhelms you the whole day. Now imagine that you slept this was every night. Accomplishing simple tasks would be difficult if one is sleep deprived. Performing at your potential would almost be impossible. In order to get rid of these unforgettable feeling many people would sleep late and go to bed early. But with such early start times for high school many students feel sleep deprived and do not achieve their best. Doing so would improve students health. Some individuals feel that keeping the start times at their current time would be best for parents and school districts. However, many people believe that delaying school start times would positively

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

Typically, people enjoy receiving an extra hour of sleep, even an extra five minutes of sleep. Teens are just one group of people who enjoy sleep. Unfortunately, teens are unable to obtain the correct number of hours per night. Later school start times would be beneficial because the schools would see an impact on attendance, increased school performance, and based on several studies, students would receive the recommended amount of sleep. The psychological effects would greatly outweigh the negative effects caused by an early start time. Benefits of a later start time include, better health, improved grades and teens reaching the recommended amount of sleep per night. Downfalls of starting school later would be transportation issues, coddling

Starting school at later times makes students more likely to pay attention in class. The California Academy of Sciences says, ¨Studies have shown that middle and high school students with adequate amounts of sleep, 8-10 hours, have better test scores. ¨ Since students do not get enough sleep, it would be very beneficial to start school at later times, since they would fall asleep with the correct amount of sleep. To add on to this reason, Diana Zuckerman Ph.D. says, ¨In order to compensate for the later start time, the school cut 5-10 minutes of every class and activity. The change meant students had slightly less time in the classroom, but the tradeoff was improved attention during the school day.¨ Although starting classes at later times

School is not the most desirable place that a teenager would want to be at seven hours a day, five days a week, 180 days a year, and even more problematic is that for them to get to school on time, they have to fight their biological clocks (Hansen). Many schools have started pushing their start times back by even just an hour, and helped with the students grades and mental health by giving them the time they need to sleep (“4 Good Snooze”). Pushing start times back a good idea because it will give students the rest they need to be successful.

Teenagers who start school earlier have more health problems due to lack of sleep. Some students in school work or have extracurricular activities after school therefore sleeping earlier is not an option. Teenagers who don’t get enough sleep usually turn to drug and alcohol abuse. If students got more time to sleep it would give the human brain time to function properly. Students would have more respect for teachers and assignments.

My day just started and I’m already beyond stressed; I had to wake up, fix my hair, put on makeup, find my suit, and then bring myself here, ugh. As a high school student, I go through a good bit of stress trying to juggle advanced placement classes, clubs, a social life, a job, and writing this oratory; it seems like I never get a break. According to the American Psychological Association, high school students score a 5.8 on a ten point scale of stress during the school year, whereas adults score a 5.1. To put those scores in context, the APA suggests that the healthy level for a high school student is a score of 3.9. Clearly, teens are inundated with high levels of stress, and to make matters worse, the adults around them often refuse

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

Studies have shown that kids perform better in school and in other aspects of their lives when they get more sleep. Students stress over school because they have to push out things they want to do in order to get the grade that is a letter which symbolizes their success and importance to society. It is hard to accomplish this when students have restrictions and limits to when they have to sleep and wake up. Teens don’t perform as well as they should when they are sleepy. Therefore, schools should start later so students perform better, are less depressed, and so it is less dangerous to get to school in the morning.

Secondly, school starting at a later time is beneficial academically. Most teens don’t get enough sleep which causes them to feel sleep deprived and stressed for school. 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).” This causes teens exhausted for the school and not mentally or physically prepared for each class in school. However, teens who get more sleep do better academically, with better standardized scores and a better quality living style (Shute). For example through one studies, showing the delay by an hour in start time, increases standardized test scores by roughly 3 percentile points (Edwards). So academically it is beneficial for the kids in school.

The national sleep epidemic that has taken the world by storm is also taking a toll in not only teen’s health but also their performance in school as well as personal safety. The sleep deprivation that teens are experiencing everyday has caused many health problems as well as academic problems. I believe starting school later will hinder this ever growing teen sleep deprivation problem we face today. Letting teens sleep later is beneficial to their learning capacity as their heightened alertness improved their classroom performance as well as better memory and many other crucial achievements. So probably starting school later, but no later than eight thirty am, will lead students to perform better in school and their health will improve drastically.

A big reason school’s may enjoy having a later start time, is because it can contribute to the school’s success. A later start time can improve the school’s overall test scores (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). Students can learn their best when they are not tired or drowsy. The School Start Later — Healthy Hours campaign stated that, “Academic improvements have been shown, and overall school climate has been measurably improved when high schools have restored later start times,” (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). The sleep researcher mentioned earlier, Wendy Troxel, said in her presentation that when kid’s are woken up by an alarm, they are literally robbed of their dreams. Dreams are associated with learning development. In order for student’s to use the most of their brains, they need to be receiving the right amount of good quality sleep. Not only do test scores rise, but so does the graduation rate, which is a major problem in today’s generation (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). In contribution to the student success, later start times could drastically improve the school’s success. Later start times have increased attendance around