Why High School Should Start Later Essay

Research has shown that teenagers experience a change in the internal sleep clock so that waking up early and going to sleep early are difficult. Some people believe that high school classes should begin later in the day to better accommodate students’ natural sleep clocks. Waking up early can be a real struggle for teenagers. Most teens naturally sleep in until ten thirty or eleven on weekends. I do believe high school classes should start later because teens could sleep more naturally, it would give teenagers more time to do things in the mornings, and more sleep equals better

In the articles of “High schools starting later to help sleepy teens”, claim is that school

In “High Schools Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens” by Michelle Trudeau and “High Schools Will Keep Starting Too Early.Here’s why.” by Dan Weissman they both have their own perspectives on life about school starting times and the problems they may bring to the students of high schools.In Michelle Trudeau’s story she says that the starting times for high schools has many students still very drowsy and tired most of the time having them nod off during school instruction.She states that in an average high school 20% of students fall asleep in class on a typical day.Therefore, in need to prevent this from happening teens need more sleep as opposed to them not getting enough sleep from either staying up late or period as some experts say.There are many ways to add additional support for teens and their sleep.

As children’s doctor and sleep expert Daniel Lewin stated, “The call for later school start times is an essential movement for keeping tweens and teens healthy.” Several reasons why school hours are unjust due to early start times include first, students not being able to focus as easily in class. Next, students also cannot participate to their full capability when their mind and body are not rested properly. Also, recent studies have concluded that teenagers cause more automobile accidents on their way to school, due to being sleep deprived. A negative perspective considering a later school start revolves around the idea that through history school hours have consistently ended before a specific time. This seems to support the fact that “after school

Still, advocates [those in favor] say studies show the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. In 1996, high school

Over 87% of teenagers don’t get enough sleep and go to school tired. Teenagers have constant expectations to live up to, but with the amount of sleep they’re getting it can be seemingly impossible. The question has been brought up time and time again, should the school day start later? Because of the risks of not getting enough sleep, trying to keep up with their their busy schedules, and being in their adolescent years, having the school day start later would help teenagers around the world immensely.

Insufficient sleep is an epidemic amongst the average America teen. Teens are wired to stay up late and sleep in even later. So why is it that across the country most of the nation's high school's start before 8:30 am? Early start times make it nearly impossible for teens to get the minimum eight hours of sleep that is recommended. Thus, the lack of sleep contributes to other problems like poor performance inside of classrooms and risk of serious health problems for the teens. I am asking The Denver Board of Education to consider my proposal of a trial run of later start times in their desired lowest testing schools. If it is proved a more successful year for the students, then we would move forward in implementing later start times in all

In order to do so, schools all over the world should start at a later time in order for students to get better grades, increase the amount of sleep students need, and to just be more healthy as a whole. For high school students, sleep is the biggest contribution to do well academically. To prevent a drop in grades and grade point averages, less car crash fatalities, development of bad habits and behavioral attitudes, it can make the world a better place, even just slightly, to know that teenagers are more alert and awake of their actions. This goes to show that sleep is very important and that schools should adjust their schedules to take care of this serious

This supports that claim that school should not start at a later time because part of going to school is also to be involved in activities at the school, so if there is less time for those clubs, then students won’t be able to enjoy it as much as they could’ve. The fact that a later start time could impact jobs shows that school should start later because then students won’t have as much money for necessary things. Specifically, if a teenager had a part time job to help pay for a car, he/she would need to work to earn money, but the less you work, the less you make and no one wants that, especially if you need the money. Also in the article, Achieve 3000 states, “Some students also say that the schedule change won't mean they get more sleep; they'll just stay up later.” To put it another way, students even believe that starting later won’t help them get more sleep because they will just have more to time to stay up late, since they can just sleep in more.

A later start of the school day means that the school day will have to end later, leaving many parents and school officials to be concerned as to if students will be able to participate in extracurricular activities. However research has shown that delaying them to later in the evening does not affect the participation levels. Students are still able to participate in all the clubs and sports they want to be apart of. Another concern is that a delayed morning start time will just encourage students to stay up later each night, however there are no studies that corroborate with this. When compared to schools that have switched to a later start time, the usual bedtime has not changed, and schools that have switched have experienced higher attendance rates and higher grade point

“ Then again there could be a downside to starting school later. One of theses downsides is there could be a possibility of school ending later in the day as well but, it would be unlikely” Also if students are older and have a job they may not be able to attend it. Most sport events or extracurricular activities start at around 5:30, if school starts at 9:30 and it is 6 hours school will end at around 3:30. Also If students have a job they can take a later shift and still be able to get sleep because school starts later.

How many times has this happened to you; it’s six thirty on a Tuesday morning, your alarm has already gone off twice, your still laying in bed and your bus comes in twenty minutes. This is an everyday occurrence at my house. It is a proven statistic that the average high school student does not get enough sleep. While some experts like Dr. Lee Yanku say “It is not the schools starting time that is the problem as to why students don’t get enough sleep, it is because of facebook, myspace and cell phones” The truth behind it is that we can’t budget sports, homework and extracurricular activities into one day and still get nine hours of sleep. This is hurting student’s academic averages and needs to change. Changing the school time will help

The issue of weather high schools should begin classes early in the day or later has been a controversy in our modern day world. A lot of people claim that it should start later in the day due to the health conditions of teenagers but it shouldn’t be. High schools should begin early in the day rather than late.

First, high schools should start later because of health concerns. With students taking harder classes, the need to study and have sufficient time for homework is much greater than middle and elementary school. With early start times, students are forced to stay up late to finish homework because of how late they arrive at home after school ends. Teenagers should be getting between 8-10 hours of sleep, and due to these very early start times, that is something that cannot happen. Along with this amount of sleep comes another reason for later high school starting times, circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms play a major role in the development of teenagers, as during this period of their life, their body becomes tired much later than it was when they were younger. Back when students were in elementary and middle school, they had not begun puberty, so these circadian rhythms were driving sleep to happen much earlier in the night. Now, the desire to sleep does not become its highest until around 11:00. Going off of this, it would be impossible for students to get the recommended amount of sleep with the current way school times are. So, change is needed to provide students with the sufficient amount of the sleep they need. Overall, lack of sleep and circadian rhythms are the main health concerns for high schoolers, which is why the high school starting time should be later.

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.