Why School Should Start Later

Adolescents and adults need around 9 hours of sleep daily (De Souza 5). Since schools are starting so early, they can not get the needed sleep time, eight to nine hours. Even though teachers go to school the same time as students, consequences are worse in students and it seems to have more of a critical effect on students. No matter if it is a student or a teacher, the quality of sleep is very important for everybody.

Many students today face a widespread chronic health problem: sleep deprivation. It’s important for teens to get 8 hours of sleep every night, but with having to get up early for school and staying up late doing homework most teens get around 4-5 hours causing them to be sleep deprived. Not sleeping enough and not sleeping well is very unhealthy, especially as a teen. As a matter of fact, there is quite a price to pay. School should start later because students would be more alert, get better grades, and have better mental and physical health.

Have you ever been trying to go to sleep late at night but, you just don’t feel sleepy. Your body is fully awake and then at one moment you’re asleep. Then it’s morning and you’ve just woken up you’re drowsy and tired and even mad. When you go to school you’re sluggish and tired until around the early second half of school you are actually awake.

Greg wakes up thinking that he will get to school on time but soon finds out he pressed snooze one too many times. He wakes up at 6:38 and only has 12 minutes to get ready and make his way to the bus stop, already in a bad mood he quickly gets ready feeling groggy and not well rested. When he gets to school he can’t properly focus and only has sleep on his mind. Gregs gets sent to the office for sleeping, which he has no control over. He makes his way throughout the day in a bad mood collecting his work but doesn't completes and gets it assigned as homework. When greg gets home he goes straight to sleep and still doesn't complete his homework because he's so tired. This is the reality of many american teenagers who don’t get enough sleep because of how early schools starts.

Everyone has at least experienced what it’s like getting up early in morning and getting ready for school or has at least heard about how awful it is dragging yourself out of bed. It gets mentally exhausting especially if you do it for five days out of every week. Some kids don’t get to go to bed till late because some do sports and some nights they have late games which just makes it more exhausting for kids. This is why schools should start later in the morning, it will give the kids more time to get their healthy sleeping hours so they are not sleep deprived and unhappy.

Do you think school starts too early? Well, according to recent studies, you’re right! There is lots of data that shows that teenagers aren’t getting enough sleep at night. In fact, according to data from The National Sleep Foundation says 87% of high schoolers don't the recommended amount for someone their age. With lack of sleep comes many negative consequences. If they don’t get enough sleep it can result in health problems, have negative effects on academic performance and increase reliance on drugs, alcohol, and caffeine. Let’s review the problems with schools starting later, the negative effects that sleep loss has on teens, the benefits of getting enough sleep and the setbacks of later start times for schools.

Many students drag themselves out of bed during the school year to get to school on time only to fall asleep during their first block class. Teachers often find themselves raising their voices to get the students to wake up during their class. Many people may assume that these teenagers are lazy or have a bad attitude. In fact, these students are sleep deprived. Today American schools start at a very early hour based on a system in place during the 1800s to allow farm students to go to school and get home in time to work on the family farm. For most American students, this is no longer the case and school systems should start at a later time. I believe school should start later than nine o’clock because it helps students get the sleep they need and to stay focused.

Here is a concern that a number of students have, and the concern is the time that school begins. Some people accept the time that school begins now is fine as it is, but others including me are wanting the opportunity to have added time in the mornings.

“Hhhhrrrrrnnnnggggg,” your restless sleep has been interrupted by the distressing alarm clock. Here it goes again, another long day in school running on an empty tank of gas. The time is five forty-five and you are already running late. You have just enough time to throw on your clothes and wet your teeth before running out to catch the school bus. This is all too common in the lives of many Savannah Chatham County Public School System students. This may even be common for you, The Board of Education members. To solve many school problems, school should start at eight thirty instead of the crack of dawn.

In a survey taken by high school students 84% of students in high school think that school should start after 9 am. All students should have school start after 9 am so they can get more sleep at night. When school starts early in the morning students aren’t awake in the first couple periods because they go to bed late. When students are tired in class they won’t pay attention and their grades and performance will start to drop.Students are always pressured to join extra curricular activities that regularly go late into the evening, youth camps, sports, teams, clubs, jobs. Reasons school should start later include students being tired, grades dropping, and the students being pressured.

While there are many clear and concise reasons on why schools should start later, there are still many people who believe this delayed start is unnecessary. Parents and coaches are not pleased with the idea of postponing schools impacting the times after school activities end. In order for schools to reach the hours required a day, schools with delayed mornings would have to end later. Ending school later means pushing extracurricular activities back, thus forcing students to start their homework and drift asleep at unreasonable hours; students would still sleep the same amount of hours as they did before (Shute). Although the idea that afterschool activities would start later is true, teenagers have actually been shown to retire to bed earlier

Day in and day out, students are withheld from sleeping a healthy amount. This is due to various things associated with school. Students are bombarded by work from the minute they arrive to school to the minute they go to sleep. School starting so early in the morning does not help them at all. School should start later in the morning. This idea is abundant on benefits like, students will get to school on time and will no longer sleep in class, students will be able to complete all homework, and students will be able to start their day off on the right foot. Starting school later is the right move.

Why should school start late? Well school should start late because of several reasons. On the first paragraph I’m going to be talking about how kids fall asleep when it’s that early in the morning. On the second paragraph I’m going to explain how kids will remember better since its not as early. The third paragraph I’m going to talking about is how kids always are distracted and not learning.

Almost every day high school students are waking up around six o’clock in the morning to get ready for school, some even earlier than that. Nearly every morning students are waking up without adequate sleep. If sleep is one of the most essential needs of the body in order to grow and develop, shouldn’t we be more aware of how much it affects students everyday performance? The ways in which students are affected by sleep-deprivation is precisely why school needs to start later.

Although some may argue that school shouldn't start later in the morning, I strongly feel that school should start later in the morning because of the many benefits it brings.