In schools all across America, many high school teachers battle the same problems: student inattention to instruction, insufficient focus in classwork, and general lethargy. One might propose that the reason for student disinterest during early school hours is that teenagers have stayed up too late the night before. However, current research from the Center for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that biological and physiological factors play a major role in determining how teenagers’ brains perform in the morning. The research concludes that teenagers’ brains are not designed to sleep more than a few hours each night. Most schools begin as early as 8:00 a.m., which causes poor performance for students. However, if schools took the advice of sleep experts and set the school start time for later in the day, there would be problems for students who participate in extracurricular activities or have jobs after school. The solution is complicated, but for the sake of safety and success, schools should change start times so that teenagers can be productive, attentive students. Schools have debated whether or not they should start later in the day. Some may say that starting school later in the day is not beneficial enough to the students because some of the students may have jobs or after school activities. Even though some of the students would be obtaining more sleep hours at night, others will not because they will be out later during the day due to
“When schools have delayed the start of the school day, communities have seen reduced tardiness, sleeping in class, and car crash rates, as well as improved attendance, graduation rates, and standardized test scores” (School Start Later). There has been much debate whether start times for school should be kept where they are at or if they should be pushed back later. Research says that the teenage brain does not fully wake up till eight a.m. or later. So why don’t school systems make the decision to push back school start times for high school students? Although there are a few benefits to school starting earlier such as family time or an after school job, but the benefits of starting school later are much greater. Public schools should initiate later start times to increase the level of academic achievement, create a more positive attitude toward learning, and reduce the amount of stress on students.
According to Jane Bianchi,the author of “The Teen Who Woke Up Her School”, “After a good night's rest, you're more alert, and it's easier to solve problems, process and remember information, and be creative. Research has also linked sleep to higher test scores.” They did a study and found that the students that were well rested were more likely to perform better. According to Jan Hoffman, “They found that the later a school's start time, the better off students were on measures like mental health, car crash rates, attendance, and, in some schools, grades and standardized test scores.” They did a study and found positive results when the students got enough sleep. Also according to, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “A later start to the school day could help boost students’ academic performance and reduce tardiness and absenteeism.” This means that having a later start time to schools would be good for the students because the schools would have better attendance. So, if the schools start later, they would have those positive
However, if schools started later there could be a chance of reducing sleep deprivation in teens. Teens generally need an average of 9 hours per night, yet they receive less than 7 hours of sleep. Today, the major issue adolescents face is chronic sleep. Mary Carskadon’s team found out that students who showed up for morning classes before 7:30 were seriously sleep-deprived, forced their bodies to be awake and run contrary to their internal clocks. In addition, the lack of sleep can cause a student to fall asleep in class. According to a survey done by the CDC, 20-30% of high school students fall asleep in school each day. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that, “School districts should optimize sleep in students and urge high schools and middle schools to aim for start times that allow students the opportunity to achieve optimal levels of sleep to improve physical and mental health.” Also, a major study at the University of Minnesota have shown that the consequences of insufficient sleep are associated with obesity, immune system disruption, smoking, violence, and depression. Consequently, early school start times can result in fewer hours of sleep as students don’t compensate this with earlier
On average high schoolers get about seven to nine hours of sleep,and then have to be up and get to school by seven. But students are never awake or ready to learn, which is why most students are failing their first period. “ Ideally, teenagers faced with early school start times would just go to bed early. However, a voluminous body of research demonstrates that earlier school start times lead teenagers to sleep less. In a recent study in Minnesota, students in schools where classes started at
In conclusion, the school system should allow schools to start later. If this were to go into effect, so many students would succeed in school more. They would not be as tired and could focus so much better. In all, schools starting later would benefit everyone tremendously.
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.
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.
Schools should start later in the day. Teens also go through stages of sleep that should not be intervened with, and why school starting early can cause health problems. Schools should start later to improve the health and the performance of students, that are teens.
As one of the most debated topics around the world, the decision on whether schools should start later in the day or remain at the same early times is still undecided. There are several reasons proving that starting schools later would be beneficial, most of the reasons revolving around the idea that students don’t get enough sleep, or that they don’t have enough time to do all of the work thrown at them. While most schools start the day before nine o’clock, many studies have shown that the overall performance of students would improve if schools started later in the day.
Studies by the National Sleep Foundation have shown that teenagers lose up to two hours of sleep per night during the school year. A big component of sleep loss is a direct result of the early start times for high school. Between after school sports, work, and homework the average teen does not make it to bed before 11p.m. Adolescents then proceed to wake up before 6:30 a.m. to make it to school on time leaving them with an insufficient amount of sleep. Many fatigued teenagers then come to school and easily miss out on learning. School officials have presented a variety of solutions to school boards to increase student alertness during school hours. One reasonable solution that would be an easy fix to the problem is switching high school and elementary schools’ start times to decrease drowsiness of high schoolers in morning classes.
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.
The first main point of why we should start school later is because every body learns better when they’re awake. The first reason is that parents have to make sure that their children get enough sleep. This is because schools clearly play an important role in students daily schedules. An evidence that shows this is that “while teenagers are going to bed later, their school start times are often becoming earlier as they advance through middle and high school” (Richmond). This evidence shows how you have to go earlier to school as you grow up and which makes you even more tired because you're not getting enough sleep. The second reason is that students improve in lots of things since they got enough sleep. Shifting the school day later in the morning resulted in a boost in attendance, test scores, and grades in math, english, science, and social studies. An evidence that shows this is that “ schools also saw a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse,
Education is an important aspect of any adolescents’ life. High school prepares adolescents for adulthood and provides them with prime information. The most obvious drawback to the typical high school system is how early in the morning it begins. Adolescents are “programmed” in a sense that their bodies begin to produce the melatonin needed for sleep at a much later time than younger children or adults. Without a sufficient amount of sleep, the human brain suffers cognition and memory issues. This is not an ideal prerequisite for learning. Teenagers have growing responsibilities and insufficient amounts of sleep can greatly hinder performance. High schools should consider
If school started later in the day children could get the sleep they need. “Sleep gives your body a rest and allows it to prepare for the next day”. As said by kidshealth.org .We all need more sleep which is hard to get when we go to bed at eleven at night and have to wake up at seven in the morning to go to school. Better rested students perform
Everyday teens wake up to the agonizing scream of their 6 A.M. alarm clock telling them to wake up for school. That very moment each day, students struggle to function enough to keep their eyes open. After this excruciating experience, many make the statement, ‘School start later’. Research shows that these early starting school days cause adolescents to become sleep deprived, leaving them with impaired decision making. It is said that the brain is unable to reach its full function this early in the morning. With school starting later problems such as sleep deprivation will decrease as well as teen accident rates and an increase in school attendance records. With all this being said, many have done research experiments to support all of these