Why Teens Should Start Later

Staying up until 1am to finish math homework and studying for that huge history test next class is pretty routine for some teens. Juggling school, sports, a social life, and other extracurriculars is tough, and teens are already in a critical period in their life. It is the time period in which teens grow and learn the most, and sets them up for a bright future. Staying healthy both mentally and physically is imperative, and sleep is probably the most important. Schools starting as early as 7am limits a teen’s potential. If schools were to start later, the benefits would be endless. Schools starting later improves both physical and mental health of students, keeps the individual and those around them safer, and improves students performance in school and sports.

The school day should start later in order improve students’ mental health. Survey results have consistently indicated that middle level and high school students who start school at 7:15 a.m. or earlier obtain less total sleep on school nights due to earlier rise times in comparison to students at later-starting schools. () This is just the beginning of the negative impacts that early start times have on students. By starting school at a later time, students’ brains will function better, their grades and learning increases, and will be more mentally stable.

fatigue overwhelms you the whole day. Now imagine that you slept this was every night. Accomplishing simple tasks would be difficult if one is sleep deprived. Performing at your potential would almost be impossible. In order to get rid of these unforgettable feeling many people would sleep late and go to bed early. But with such early start times for high school many students feel sleep deprived and do not achieve their best. Doing so would improve students health. Some individuals feel that keeping the start times at their current time would be best for parents and school districts. However, many people believe that delaying school start times would positively

School start times play a very big role in a student’s overall development, especially when they aren’t getting enough sleep because of it. An important factor to consider for a student’s development is the act of sleeping; that a lack of it can cause serious problems to the students’ growing body. According to research done with Brown University’s Julie Boergers, the author of the letter “Benefits of later school start times”, the amount of sleep that adolescents need ranges from 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep. Only 17 percent of these students

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

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.

As children’s doctor and sleep expert Daniel Lewin stated, “The call for later school start times is an essential movement for keeping tweens and teens healthy.” Several reasons why school hours are unjust due to early start times include first, students not being able to focus as easily in class. Next, students also cannot participate to their full capability when their mind and body are not rested properly. Also, recent studies have concluded that teenagers cause more automobile accidents on their way to school, due to being sleep deprived. A negative perspective considering a later school start revolves around the idea that through history school hours have consistently ended before a specific time. This seems to support the fact that “after school

In the article “Pediatricians Say School Should Start Later For Teens’ Health” it states,“...... a National Sleep Foundation poll found that 59 percent of middle schoolers and 87 percent of high schoolers are getting less than the recommended 8 ½ to 9 ½ hours of sleep a night. ”(Shute 2). Many people say that school start time is affecting students’ health.

The article “Later start time for teens improves grades, mood, and safety” addresses the topic for teens to have later start times. “The evidence shows that the later the start time, the greater the academic benefits” (Wahlstrom 2016, pg 2). The author has strong arguments concluding the medical research, schools actually participating in later start times, academic outcomes, and health/activity outcome. School starting times being later could be more effective for students in their health and scholastic purposes.

Sleep deprivation is the big reason why today students do not have a high academic performance , and are not focused . By the same token , some pros of starting school later that Amy morin states are Adequate sleep could help teens be more alert during the school day, which could boost their academic performance, and Sleeping longer could reduce health-related issues that accompany sleep deprivation. Another good pro is better attendance , more students will not miss school and miss assignments and get overwhelmed with all the work .

Late starts in high schools have improved students’ academic performance immensely. With late starts, teens would be able to sleep for the suggested amount of sleep, and it would improve

Schools that start before 8 a.m. are a major reason students aren’t getting adequate sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation teenagers need on average 8 ½ - 9 ½ hours of sleep a night(Schute, Nancy). Realistically students rarely get that much sleep. When students don’t get adequate sleep it has the ability to affect their attention span, memory, problem-solving ability, and mood(Rosenberg, Russell). Are these students actually expected to pay attention, learn, solve problems, and have an acceptable attitude when they wake up sleep deprived? With a sleep cycle that changes once students hit puberty and an increase in the production of melatonin its nearly impossible for teens to fall asleep before 10:30 p.m.(Edwards, Finley). In my own experience I don’t even get tired until around 11:30 p.m. and barely fall asleep before 12, so it makes it extremely difficult to wake up at 6 a.m. and get ready for the day.

Many people are familiar with the saying, “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," but does it really apply to high school students? Sleep is not a luxury, it is a biological need, and most high school students do not get enough sleep at night, wake up early at five, and usually either fall asleep during class or cannot concentrate. Therefore, school start times should be pushed back an hour later. In order to improve this nation-wide issue people need to look at the consequences on student health, such as depression and weight gain, and also the effects of sleep deprivation on academics. In order to understand the issue, it needs to be examined why it is a concerning problem. The solution to this problem of early school start times is for schools to beginning pushing back the start time of school, which will in turn improve various factors in the students.

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.

A big reason school’s may enjoy having a later start time, is because it can contribute to the school’s success. A later start time can improve the school’s overall test scores (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). Students can learn their best when they are not tired or drowsy. The School Start Later — Healthy Hours campaign stated that, “Academic improvements have been shown, and overall school climate has been measurably improved when high schools have restored later start times,” (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). The sleep researcher mentioned earlier, Wendy Troxel, said in her presentation that when kid’s are woken up by an alarm, they are literally robbed of their dreams. Dreams are associated with learning development. In order for student’s to use the most of their brains, they need to be receiving the right amount of good quality sleep. Not only do test scores rise, but so does the graduation rate, which is a major problem in today’s generation (Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours). In contribution to the student success, later start times could drastically improve the school’s success. Later start times have increased attendance around