Why Teens 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

Research has shown that teenagers experience a change in the internal sleep clock so that waking up early and going to sleep early are difficult. Some people believe that high school classes should begin later in the day to better accommodate students’ natural sleep clocks. Waking up early can be a real struggle for teenagers. Most teens naturally sleep in until ten thirty or eleven on weekends. I do believe high school classes should start later because teens could sleep more naturally, it would give teenagers more time to do things in the mornings, and more sleep equals better

“Making teens start school in the morning is cruel” says brain doctor. Mary Carskadon at Brown University has shown that teenagers need about nine hours a night to maintain full alertness and academic performance. Getting up at 6:00 am is totoo early. We should have a later start time because we need more sleep to focus, tTeens need a certain amount of sleep, and we need to stop dozing off in class.

First of all, kids will be more energized and be more academically advanced if school starts are pushed back. According to, “Should School Start Later” “Studies show that well rested teens get better grades, have higher standardized test scores, and miss fewer days of school. They also have a lower risk of being in car accidents and have fewer health problems such as depression, mood changes, and being overweight.” Many schools start before 7:45 a.m. and have tired students not putting forth their best efforts while 40 percent of American High Schools start classes past 8 a.m. The schools with later starts

High school students should have a later starting time in school due to students not getting the amount of sleep they need to function. Students that stay up late at night are way too tired to learn when they get to school early in the morning. Most students who do stay up late are unable to sleep due to melatonin not yet being produced. This shows that starting school at a later time would have many positive benefits. These benefits include higher test scores, increased attendance, more participation from students, and higher performance from athletes.

The primary reason for attending school is for adolescents to get an education in hopes of getting a good job.  Attendance, test scores, and GPA’s all play an important role in a student’s success in school, and if they can all be improved by pushing the start time back, then this issue should be pushed further.  The root problem of students not performing to their full potential has to do with the inability to focus from drowsiness in class due to the lack of sleep they are getting.  To support this point, Carskadon, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior, and his team, “found that students showed up for morning classes seriously sleep-deprived and that the 7:20 a.m. start time required them to be awake during hours that ran contrary to their internal clocks” (Richmond).  In other words, Carskadon believes that current high school start times go against teens’ natural sleep patterns, making them be awake at a time where their bodies aren’t ready to get up yet.  This causes concentration issues making paying attention in class harder, and kids not getting the best grades they can.  Also, sleep won’t get any

To begin, starting school later can improve students’ health and safety. The CDC urges people to schools to start later, and they have solid reasons for it. Researchers from Minnesota University analyzed over 9000 high school students and discovered that altering the original start time to a later one improved attendance, test scores, grades in math, social studies, and English, and decreased tardiness, drug abuse, and depression. Sadly, over 75% of schools in over 40 states start before 8:30. Without a doubt, later start times have obvious benefits

Insufficient sleep is an epidemic amongst the average America teen. Teens are wired to stay up late and sleep in even later. So why is it that across the country most of the nation's high school's start before 8:30 am? Early start times make it nearly impossible for teens to get the minimum eight hours of sleep that is recommended. Thus, the lack of sleep contributes to other problems like poor performance inside of classrooms and risk of serious health problems for the teens. I am asking The Denver Board of Education to consider my proposal of a trial run of later start times in their desired lowest testing schools. If it is proved a more successful year for the students, then we would move forward in implementing later start times in all

The Atlantic website stated that starting school at a later time will boost our attendance, test scores, and overall grades. Believe it or not a lot of students are late to class all the time, so if we get better sleep we will be wide awake and we won’t be late to class anymore, and we will get better grades. Since we will get to school later we have to get out around 3:00, so we have time to get through every class. Sadly there is also a weakness, after school we either have sports or extracurricular activities and on top of that we have to do all our homework on time before you go

Starting school later can make student's academic performance improve. ”Researchers analyzed data from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming and found that 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.”(Why Schools Should Start Later In The Morning). This is probably due to the fact that students learn better when they are awake. If starting school a few hours later can improve test scores and learning, why not do it? Instead of sleeping in class, students will be learning.

High Schools should start later in the morning because teens need more sleep so they can perform better in their classes and get better grades. Teens need around 8 to 10 hours of sleep to reach their best potential in school. One study found that only 15% reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights (National Sleep Foundation, 2018). A big problem is teens that have bad sleep schedules. Teens don’t get enough sleep because of their hectic schedules that deal with jobs, after school activities for example clubs and sports teams, homework, family, and friends.

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 national sleep epidemic that has taken the world by storm is also taking a toll in not only teen’s health but also their performance in school as well as personal safety. The sleep deprivation that teens are experiencing everyday has caused many health problems as well as academic problems. I believe starting school later will hinder this ever growing teen sleep deprivation problem we face today. Letting teens sleep later is beneficial to their learning capacity as their heightened alertness improved their classroom performance as well as better memory and many other crucial achievements. So probably starting school later, but no later than eight thirty am, will lead students to perform better in school and their health will improve drastically.

Do you ever wake up and feel like you haven’t gotten enough sleep? The reason is because in reality you probably haven’t. Studies show that schools should not start any earlier that 8:30 in the morning due to teens suffering from sleep deprivation. There are many negative effects this condition can have on a teens body including a direct effect on one’s physical and mental health, public safety and excelling in the future. In the Ted Talk video, " Why school should start later for teens" by, Wendy Troxel.  Ms. Troxel explained why school should start later for teens.. Students are very drowsy in the morning and are usually rushing to get to school on time which limits breakfasts times and healthy food options. Schools should start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.  for several reasons  but sleep deprivation is  the most important. Sleep deprivation can cause a direct effect to a child’s general health and behavior, public safety and potentially future success.

Many individuals, especially adolescents, do not function well early in the morning. “…many teenagers are going to school with their brains essentially in sleep mode” (Kaufman, 2001). This makes it difficult to retain information and in return use the information they have learned later on according to Robert Gerson, a physician and parent (Heinen, 1996). There is a reasonable explanation for why adolescents need the sleep they need at the times in which they need it, or do it for that matter. “Their circadian rhythms, determined by release of the hormone melatonin and other factors, were telling them to stay up later (even if their homework was finished and the day’s chores complete) and to get up later. On basic biological level, many had no more control over that circadian switch than they did over growing facial hair or breasts” (Kaufman, 2001).