Why School Should Start Later

It is a well known fact that teenagers in general need more sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation: “[teenage sleep] is as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage stress of being a teen.” When schools start as early as 7 o’clock, it puts students health at risk. Adolescents already have a natural shift in their internal body clock, or circadian rhythm when it comes to sleep. Puberty allows this to happen, causing a “sleep phase delay” of about two hours. When teens can't fall asleep until late and school starts so early, they aren't getting nearly enough sleep. Lack of such, according to CDC, makes the individual

As a result of a changing body and mind, adolescent sleep cycles have different needs than those of adults or younger children. As a matter of fact, Biologically, sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence -- meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm (“Teens”). In addition to biological change in sleep patterns, teenagers also tend to have eccentric sleep cycles. Obtaining less than healthy hours of sleep during the school week and then catching up on their sleep on the weekends. Most teenagers during the school week, do not get the suggested amount of sleep. In fact, according to a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 80% of teenagers do not get the suggested amount of sleep of 9 hours on school nights (“School Start”). With changing bodies and minds, along with an increased amount of schoolwork and extracurricular activities, teenagers need more sleep than children of a younger age. Experts believe that moving back the start time of school for high school students will improve grades, test scores, and the overall health and personality of many students.

If we were to start school later, academic GPA’s (grade point averages) would definately increase. Isn’t this what we want in our school? It is proven that the more sleep you get, the more awake and alert you actually are. I interviewed Michael Claffey, a sophomore at Newington High School, he stated “ Goooooud.” Also Jorge Premto a sophomore at Newington High School stated “Yes Michael, yes I do believe school should start at nine o’clock am. This will thus help further my education because I will be well rested.” In all, we need school to start later because it will help us with our education.

The drowsiness of adolescents contributes to over 100,000 crashes per year. Students being drowsy is from being sleep deprived from the early school start times and that is one of the reasons why they get no sleep. Schools shouldn’t be starting early in the morning because it affects adolescents mental and physical health, their academic performance and it doesn’t let them get the recommended amount of sleep.

First, school times should be pushed back to later start times because students will not be sleep deprived. Many teenagers are not getting enough sleep and this is due to early school start times. A National Sleep Foundation Poll reported 28% of teenagers fall asleep at least once a week during first hour of school due to their lack of sleep. This means that

Have you ever had to go to sleep early because you had something important the next day and you needed a good night's sleep? Schools are starting later and later as researchers are saying that kids perform better when they get more sleep. There a a lot of reasons to support this, one is that it has been proven that kids do better on tests and quizzes following a good night’s sleep. School starting later could help with child obesity. It has been proven that when school starts later that there is improved attendance, graduation rates, and reduced car crash rates. School starting later would benefit the teachers and staff as well. The graduation rate alone is one very good reason for school to start later. School should start at at least 9:00.

School start times vary across the country, from six to ten o’clock in the morning, and are heavily debated by students, parents, and superintendents. Some believe that the early bird gets the worm, while others demand their beauty sleep. I firmly believe that all schools should start later in the day, since it helps students get more sleep, perform better in school, and be more alert in class.

“They say the early bird catches the worm but for teens in high school, it would be better to catch some shut-eye.” – Nike Kennedy. Waking up early is pretty bad in itself but waking up early then having to sit and listen to someone talk for several hours is even worse. Starting school later would allow for the student to stay awake, and not make teachers feel foolish when their students have their head down falling asleep. School should start later because of the many benefits it would provide for the students and faculty.

So, let’s pretend that you are a parent with a high schooler in the house. He’s really tired in the morning and he has a lot of homework to do before school. School starts at 7:50 a.m. It’s 7:45. He’s in trouble. The grades of teens may be better if school started later, the amount of sleep loss in teens is dropping more and more, and the schools of America are starting to early. This is why school should start later.

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.

From what is known about school, is that it has always started early in the morning besides having delays. Some teachers say that school starts too early in the morning and causes their students to fall asleep in their class. School should not start later because school would go on later in the day, it promotes kids to be lazy all the time and potential jobs in the future require you to get up early for work. More than enough people don’t like school early in the morning, but imagine it going until late in the afternoon. Most high schools start around 7:00-8:00 A.M. depending on where they live.

This particular source from The Atlantic basically just talks about why schools need to start later for middle and high schools and how students’ health and learning are at risk when they start school too early in the morning. The article starts by saying that the centers for disease and prevention are calling for schools to start later in the morning because a lack of sleep has been linked to higher rates of obesity, depression, and motor-vehicle accidents among teens. A study by done by the University of Minnesota proved that a shift in school start time proved beneficial for the students with better attendance, test scores, and academic grades. There was also a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression. Another study done by Brown University found that when students didn’t get the recommended amount of sleep, they became sleep- deprived during class and that the students were “pathologically sleepy.” Even with all of the science behind the fact that schools should start later, schools are often reluctant to do so because school districts don’t have the funding necessary to do so, parents worry that kids will not have time for their extra- curricular activities and or rely on their teens to watch younger siblings. With such opposition, the article proclaims that it is very possible to switch school times without creating too many problems and that school districts just have to be creative in how they implement and plan out the time

Do you think school should start later? It should because students would get more time to sleep and would give students time to eat a good breakfast so they wont be hungry all day. Studies show that schools with later start times have better test scores. School should start later, because students do not get enough sleep and do not have time to eat a good breakfast, however this could disrupt parents schedules and after school activites of students.

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

People think that school should start after 8:30. But is that the logical choice? No. School should start early. Schools may be able to save up to 30 percent on transportation costs by starting some campuses early. Starting the day early means that there is going to be a lot more time for after-school activities, it also prepares students for the workforce in college, however many people blame the lack of sleep in teenagers on too-early start times.