Why School Should Start Later

This had them experimentally change their school start time from 8:00 in the morning to 8:25. According to Julie Boergers, Christopher Gable, and Judith Owens, the 25 minute delay in the school start times resulted in 29 more minutes of sleep per night in students. “ A modest (25 min) delay in school start time was associated with significant improvements in sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, mood, and caffeine use. These findings have important implications for public policy and add to research suggesting the health benefits of modifying school schedules to more closely align with adolescents’ circadian rhythms and sleep needs.” (1) This quote explains that having school start as little as 25 minutes later can improve the productivity and concentration in students. The students become more alert and are willing to put more effort into their

In many districts, elementary and high schools start classes at about the same time each day. However, the students that attend these schools have very different sleep needs because they are at different stages in their development. Scientific research has shown that high schools should start classes later to address the major problems created by sleep deprivation among teenagers. By doing so, the health and learning abilities of adolescents would greatly improve.

First, starting school later would improve the health and wellness of students. Teenagers risk their health by going to sleep late at night and waking up early in the morning for school. The average teenager from 14 to 17 years old needs an estimated eight to ten hours of sleep every night. Due to the stressful nature of school, teenagers are unable to get a recommended amount of sleep. Lack of sleep is not healthy for developing adolescent, since many body systems rely on sleep and do not run well with reduced amounts of it. Moreover, the academics of students would improve with a later school start time. The focus and work ethic that students have in school is dependent on the amount of sleep that they get. Without the necessary amount of sleep, teenagers struggle to concentrate in their classes. Allowing students to get more sleep would increase this

Driving into town around 7:30 am during the week means that you will see teens hurriedly driving, tired kids walking, and school busses full of kids going to school. Some might think that this is too early and others will disagree. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, most schools would start no earlier than 9am. This changed around the 1970’s and 1980’s, when most schools found it more convenient to start before 8 a.m. Notably, the importance of students getting enough sleep must have been overlooked or seen as insignificant, when schools were making these decisions. Consequently, students and teachers do not get as much sleep as they need. Schools should start later than they currently are because the extra sleep will help kids’ and adolescents’ health, academic performance, and although people may think that sleep is not that important, it will affect students’ safety.

According to a study done by the National Sleep Foundation, more than 60% of students complain of being tired each day. This is unacceptable, and we need to lower that percentage. One way we can do that is by making the start time of schools later in order to get children the sleep they deserve. The start time of schools should be later because it would improve student’s mental health, it would improve their academic abilities, and it would make students less prone to injury and accidents.

The American education system is diverse and unique, and one aspect that varies wildly across the country is school start times. Deciding the start times for schools is dependent on many factors including bus schedules (Edwards, 2012), biological development (Borlase, Gander, & Gibson, 2013; Perkinson-Gloor, Lemola, & Grob, 2013), and parental preference (Edwards, 2012; Perkinson-Gloor et al., 2013). School start times are considered one aspect that can affect sleep duration, since they affect wake time. Adequate, high quality sleep is extremely important for adolescents and inadequate sleep can lead to a number of negative outcomes including poorer physical and mental health, as well as poorer academic performance (Borlase et al., 2013; Edwards, 2012; Keller, Smith, Gilbert, Bi, Haak, & Buckhalt, 2015; Paksarian, Rudolph, Jian-Ping, & Merikangas, 2015; Perkinson-Gloor, et al., 2013). Therefore, school start times are important to the field of education, because start times affect sleep and sleep, or lack thereof, can affect cognitive ability and performance. We are always looking to improve our schools and better educate our children, and the adjustment of the start time is a small change that may have a big impact.

Since it is hard for students to fall asleep early, high schools around the United States that have changed to later start times have seen improvements in students, and not just academically, but in other aspects of a teen’s life too. There are some disadvantages to changing the school start time to a later time, but the advantages outnumber the disadvantages. Due to the fact that teens are not able to fall asleep early because of melatonin and the harm that early start times have on children, makes it clear that high schools should start later in the morning.

When students have to get up early for school it creates many problems, including not being awake in their first couple periods. According to Dr. Judith A. Owens when students get less sleep it can cause chronic sleep loss. “A substantial body of research has now demonstrated that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss and has a wide range of potential benefits to students with regard to physical and mental health, safety, and academic achievement”(1).This quote shows how there are many problems that can happen when students don’t get enough sleep at

When someone imagines the ideal high schooler, the social norm seems to always be staying up late, and waking up early. But this trend has taken a toll on the student’s brain. The problem with early start times in schools is that kids are just too tired to think at 7 or 8 o’clock in the morning. This is important because this topic is a common issue right now in schools. Palm Desert High School has a late start on Wednesday’s because it gives teachers the time to have their meetings, but it also gives us high schoolers an extra hour or so of sleep. According to the article “Sleep in Adolescents (Thirteen-Eighteen Years),” the average amount of sleep high schoolers get is between 7 and 7 1/2 hours. High Schoolers should be getting between 9 and 9 1/2 hours but most teenagers need 9 1/2 hours of sleep. Late start values kid’s education and thinking abilities by letting them get more sleep

Early school times can heavily affect teens, including us, in many different aspects. Health is our major concern, since teens need at least eight and a half hours to nine hours of sleep, and we sleep more later in teenage years. The Atlantic newspaper says that research shows that different age groups sleep at different times due to their internal clock particularly teens sleep later because of this and it doesn't help that school keeps starting earlier as you move up in grade. Since we are getting less time to sleep, this can create atrocious affects to our academic and our cognitive skills. Being focused, remembering our homework, visual process, are just some of our many cognitive skills that we have. If we can’t sleep enough, all of our

Sleep is very important for everyone. It is especially important for adolescents who are still developing. Brain development and recharging of the body are both things that take place while an adolescent sleeps. Without enough sleep, the body isn’t prepared for the next day. The body needs to get the recommended hours of sleep or it won’t perform to its best ability. In adolescents, this is an issue because scientists are finding teens are getting less and less hours of sleep due to hectic schedules causing their bodies to be worn out. Research is showing that by having schools start later, teens are getting the sleep they need to be awake and alert for the next day. Today, most schools start around 8:00 am or earlier at about 7:30 am. School

A problem that burdens classrooms across the nation is a lack of energy and fatigue. Early start times for school cause students to wake-up early, and the large amounts of homework cause them to stay up late. The lack of sleep affects teenage student worst of all because their developing brains need the most sleep possible. Consequently, students’ grades could begin to suffer because they are not retaining information. “I feel exhausted and unable to learn,” says a student when asked how she feels in her first-hour class. Research states that the average school start time is 8:00. To avoid this dilemma, schools should start classes later, have a study period first-hour in lieu of an actual class, or assign less homework so students can get to bed at a reasonable time.

Students have progressively gotten worse at school for an unknown reason. It was never figured out, until today when someone named, Alice Park did a study to show that a student’s sleep pattern is the cause of this predicament. Normally, school schedules usually begin at around 7am to 8:30am, but what Park and multiple scientists say, is that school should start later. Skipping on sleep can be detrimental to a child’s performance in school. There is a multitude of reasons why children are losing sleep such as, watching television, doing homework, or browsing the internet. This causes multiple children to stay up around 10pm (or higher) even on school nights. According to the article “But I’m Not Tired!” by Alice Park, it states that “It is ideal for school – age children to get around 10 ½ hours of sleep but studies have shown that students only get 7 to 8 hours of sleep.” How can parents and teachers make sure that students are getting the ideal number of sleep?

Schools are filled with people each day. Many of these people are tired and have trouble focusing on schoolwork. Why are these students like this? Many of us are like this, just waiting for the time you can stop listening to teachers talk about their subjects. However, we can become more focused. The easiest way is to get more sleep. What can we move out of our busy schedules? Nothing really. So, all schools should start later. I will discuss the effects of a lack of sleep, the solution, and the consequences of the action we take. 1.Teen’s biological clocks cause them to fall asleep and wake up at later times. The American Association of Pediatrics said, “research indicates that the average teenager in today’s society has difficulty falling asleep before 11:00 PM and is best suited to wake at 8:00 AM or later.” and that “most adolescents begin to experience a sleep–wake “phase delay”, manifested as a shift of up to 2 hours relative to sleep– wake cycles in middle childhood.” Simply stated, teenagers fall asleep later and wake up later than they did when they were younger. The National Sleep Foundation said that “...they [adolescents] need 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep.” These show a lack of sleep. If a teenager falls asleep at exactly 11PM, and has to wake up at 7 AM to get ready for school, they will only get 8 hours of sleep, a little below the recommended 8.5 hour minimum. Losing that half hour or so of sleep every night is what is causing us as teenagers to be tired and unfocused during the school day. This is not as uncommon as you might think. The CDC said that approximately 31% of high school students get enough sleep each night. That is 69 out of every 100 of us that don’t sleep enough. This is not it. Other reasons for a lack of sleep include: irregular bedtimes, and use of technology in the evening. We have now learned that most of us aren’t getting enough sleep. Getting enough sleep means teenagers will be healthier. In an article written by the CDC, it said, “Adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight, not engage in daily physical activity, suffer from depressive symptoms, and engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs.”

Adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight, not engage in daily physical activity, suffer from depressive symptons, engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs. (Schools Start Too Early) Therefore, if we can make the school start time later, then the students will have more time to sleep which is good for their health. Some people may argue that students can go to bed earlier so that they can still get enough sleep. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics states that adolescents have unique sleep rhythms that make it harder for them to go to sleep and wake up earlier than other people, so they issued a new policy statement recommending that middle and high schools start class no earlier than 8:30 a.m. (Strauss) Because of this unique sleep rhythm among teenagers, we need to delay school start time to give them time to get more sleep and a better health.