Why School Should Start Later

What do you think about the time your school starts? Have you ever thought about the affects of your opinion would have on other students? Some people believe school should begin earlier. Some people believe school should start later. In my opinion school start time should stay the same because it would affect students in a negative way by not getting enough sleep, not spending time with their family and not participating in after school activities.

Do you believe school should start early or do you think with a little bit of sleep they will be fine? I point my opinion that school starts too early in the day. I know I don’t like getting up at 7 in the morning to go to school and force my brain to work even though i'm dreading to go back to sleep. I can not think fully in the morning with being tired and not wanting to come to school. With having like 6 hours of sleep, I’m still tired, it's not enough to function correctly. Every morning when my alarm goes off I turn it off and lay in bed hoping and wishing I didn’t have to get up so early.

I don’t think I can name one person who likes getting up early and going to school. In my opinion, I think school should definitely start later. Research has proven that starting school later has improved children’s grades, health, and attitude.

Is sleep important? A question that many people wonder to themselves at night. Of course, the answer is yes. Sleep is one of the most important things in our lives, it keeps our brains healthy and working. It gives our brain cells time to relax and not over-work. However, some teens aren 't getting the 8.5 hours of sleep they need, and believe the school is responsible for it. In most districts, schools start times around 7:00 am in some cases. Parents and students believe that the school district should change this and make the start of the school day later, so that they can get the right amount of sleep they need to function. In the Scope article, “Should School Start Later?” by Justin O’Neill, “Teachers Oppose Later Start Times” by Julie Zauzmer and Dana Hedgpeth, and “Eight Major Obstacles to Delaying School Start Times” By The National Sleep Foundation, discuss the issue surrounding the idea of students not getting enough sleep at night and that we should make the start of school later. On the other hand, other people think that the school day should stay the same. Although some people argue to make school start later, I think the times should stay the same because school ending later will mess up students after school schedules, getting more bus drivers would be expensive, and changing the school times might send the wrong message.

Have you ever seen students sleep in your class? Thirty-Three percent of teenagers report falling asleep in school. Starting school later can have many academic, health, and safety benefits. That is why High Schools should start at 8:30 a.m.

During puberty the sleep-wake cycle of an adolescent changes. This change called “phase delay” creates about a two hour later sleep onset time and wake time in adolescents during puberty that causes teens to get their best sleep between the hours of 11:00 P.M. and 8 A.M. (Kanwal; Figlio; “Wake up Calls”). During adolescent years, a teen’s sleep drive is modified. The concentration needed to fall asleep moves slower which makes it take longer for a teen to fall asleep (Kanwal). Biology is blatantly telling us to start schools at a later time for the sake of

Making school start later in the day and end later in the day makes students more prone to staying up late. Students would want to stay up late in the night to play video games, hang with friends, and even watch television. Many students may even complain about not having enough time to do homework. The later students stay up at night they are more likely to not do their work and do the activities they want to do. Staying up late at night can cause students to lack in school the next

Sleep is an important role in our health. Sleep allows young children to grow. There are a lot of reasons that school districts should delay their starting times for school. There are health risks that people would not expect with students with

“Early to bed, early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” said Ben Franklin. This statement points out that humans would achieve many benefits from having an efficient sleep circle. However, this habit seems hard to follow in reality especially for the teenagers who are going through puberty. From Let Kids Sleep Later, Terra Ziporyn Snider mentioned that “starting schools no early than 8:30 a.m. is a turning point in the decades-old-battle to start school later”, which means school days starting later is not a new discussion in society. There are many studies about relationship between time management and the time school starts have been considered to find the best way for students to interact with school and other activities. Although many people believe that students are supposed to go to school early in the morning when they can save more times for more activities, I believe that school days should start later for two main reasons: health issues and time management.

“Over 90 percent of American high school students are chronically sleep-deprived”, according to Carolyn Gregoire at Huffington Post. Students in their teens need 9 hours of sleep, and only 9% of students in this age range meet this requirement. Students who have later school start times report being less stressed and more focused. When schools start later, more sleep is allowed and students are less sleep deprived and can focus on the task at hand.

The biggest thing that students gain from this is an increase in health. Most teens can be considered sleep deprived because they are not receiving a substantial amount of sleep needed for a healthy lifestyle. Often times, a teen can be running late to school because they slept in, and causes them to drive faster to school. This is dangerous and puts the life of the student at risk. A change in time has caused a decrease in car crashes by 70% in Teton County, Wyoming. (Wahlstrom et al.) This is another advantage of a later start time in a high school setting. Mood has gone up in schools that start later, according to research done in a high school in Rhode Island. (Owens et al.) If a student has a better attitude, they are more likely to live a better lifestyle, and make better decisions, thus improving their health even more. Also, more sleep will leave the student feeling more energized and likely able to participate in an activity. This will give them exercise, which is considered being more

School should start at a later time because it improves attendance. Since most students who miss school miss it because they slept too much, schools need to start at later times. To support this reason, Amy R. Wolfsen, a psychology professor, says, ¨ When students get sufficient sleep, they awake more alert, resulting in an increase in academic performance and a decrease in dropout rates, absenteeism, and disciplinary problems.¨ Since starting school at earlier times are causing absenteeism, we need to start school at a later time. Also, Kelly Smith, a newspaper writer interviewed a high school, which started school at a later time said, ¨Superintendent Rob Metz was principal, he remembers greeting students at 7:15 a.m. who were barely

Not getting the right amount of sleep can lead to depression and increase chances of other deadly outcomes. It is tough for students to get the appropriate amount of sleep that they need because most teens do not get tired until eleven at night and school starts at seven thirty. A lack of sleep can heighten the chance of students getting into car crashes, doing drugs, and lastly is increased sleep times aides attendance and test scores. Pushing school start times back will benefit all kids by letting them get the sleep they need because if teens do not get the recommended amount of sleep it can affect a teenager long term physically and mentally, as well as their academic success.

The average start time of schools is 8:03 A.M (Wheaton, Ferro, and Croft 810). 8:03 is way too early for teens to get up and start trying to focus and learn and do it effectively. Students are recommended to receive 8.5 to 9 hours of sleep a night. With schools starting so early teens are not able to get the amount of sleep needed to take in as much knowledge as they could if schools started later. The main reason teens’ brains aren’t ready to operate at this early time is because the part of your brain called the circadian clock is disrupted by thrown off sleep schedules (Ornes). By this internal clock being thrown off students won’t operate to their full potential and this is why school start times must be pushed back. Boys and girls go to bed at 10:30 on average (Paksarian et al). With teenagers going to sleep on average at this time there is no way they are able to get the amount of sleep they need to function properly. 8:30 or after are when schools are recommended to start for proper teen sleep (Boergers). By schools pushing back their start times is

To begin with, early school hours affects students sleep. In a study of 18,360 high schools, the average school start was 7:59 (nces.ed.gov). According to pediatrician Judith Owens, "Adolescents who get enough sleep have a reduced risk of being overweight or suffering depression . . . and have better grades, higher standardized test scores and an overall better quality of life,"(Owens). The recommended amount of sleep by the national sleep foundation for an adolescent to fully operate during the day is 8.5-9.25 hours (Bethune), whilst the average amount of sleep in teens is 7-7.5 hours (nationwidechildrens.org). When teens/children do not have enough sleep, the brain becomes prone to poor memory, lack of ability to be