Why Is Early High School 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.

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.

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

Have you ever been really tired when you wake up for school in the morning? Sleep is very important to all teens, or it should be. Young adults should have 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep every night, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), in Sarah McKibben’s article “Wake Up Calls”. Unfortunately, two-thirds of teens are getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night, according to the NSF’s chart. This is causing a large number of schools and scientists to think that schools should start later in the morning. I fiercely disagree with this. Schools should not start later because starting later for high schools would cause too many negative consequences.

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.

In the articles of “High schools starting later to help sleepy teens”, claim is that school

Many students, teachers, parents, and more throughout the country have a firm stance on the argument that school should start at a later time not only because of our diverse sleep patterns, but also because of the negative stress it puts on our bodies, and it even how it can influence our ability to learn. We hear of students constantly complaining about getting very little sleep every night during the school week. Many teachers, parents, and even other students getting better sleep seem to just blow it off or think that students are overexerting the problem. We are starting to see that there are actual negative effects from students, mainly in high school, losing sleep due to extra curricular activities, homework, and any other activities

There are many learning benefits when students start school later. The research, conducted by a sleep expert with Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, R.I., found that a delay in school start time of only 30 minutes was associated with significant improvements in adolescent alertness, mood and health( 1 ). The more sleep we get we can learn more and it would be better. The more

Significant facts exist that confirm that school start times are too early. The amount of sleep children get is a key factor to how they do in school. Energy is a huge necessity for kids and teens to concentrate during the school day. If students aren’t concentrating in class because they are sleep deprived, they are missing crucial information that they need to get good, or even average test grades. With early wakeup times, it makes it very challenging for students to get the ideal amount of sleep to do well in school. For example, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend for kids to get at least 8.5-9.5 hours of good sleep. The AAP warned that sleep deprivation can "threaten academic success,

Kids have much worse health with little sleep . The text names Up for debate: should school start later states that ,”Recent research shows that if students could get more sleep, ‘’ also that,’’and make fewer trips to the school nurse if school started just 25 mins Later ,’’meaning that they would have better health if school started later.

Although school starting later improves attendance and helps students with their work, there are some disadvantages to it. To begin, even though school starting later may help with a kid’s sleep, many students will take advantage of school starting later. For example, if school starts later, students will take advantage of it and sleep later because they know they won’t have to wake up so early. This won’t help with the hours of sleep a child gets. Not only this but, although school starting at a later time could help, if school starts later, school will have to end later too. This is bad because if school ends later then a student will have less time for other things after school. One example could be after school activities. Most Children

Dr. Judith Owens the Director of Sleep Medicine at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C states "Delaying school start times has a whole host of benefits that are well documented at this point,"

As a student at Kingsland High School, I have frequently needed to wake up before six in the morning. There are seldom times where I have actually got the amount of sleep that is required for someone my age. The solution to mine and everyone else’s problem is to start the school day later in the day. Scientists have found that adolescents need, on average, nine to nine and a half hours of sleep per night, but two-thirds of teenagers reported sleeping less than seven hours a night. This causes multiple students to be sleep-deprived throughout the school day. This weakens the student's learning, memory, attention capability, and even impairs their health. Studies have shown a link between mental illnesses, a weakened immune system, and higher stress due to sleep-deprivation. Academics also are affected when schools start later in the morning. Teachers in schools that start early have noticed an improvement in the classroom when teenagers are more alert, less moody, and less tired as a result of a great night's sleep. Although there are several benefits of starting the school day later, frequently people disagree with the adjustments.

With class starting at 8:30 AM, extracurricular activities extending well past 8 PM, students working in after school jobs, trying to keep up on the constant demand of homework: high school students put getting a solid eight hours of sleep or even a quick power nap, at the bottom of their to-do lists. "Over-packed schedules and 12-hour days are draining already sleep-deprived teenagers. In high schools where most students go onto college, the pressure to excel inside and outside of the classroom leaves students with little time to relax." ("Power Napping," 1996). Lack of sleep is accepted as a part of high school. We've all seen our classmates fall asleep during a history lecture or video. The problem is that students are forced to stay up most of the night finishing projects and papers or studying for their tests the next day. Some argue that if teenagers would manage their time better, they could sleep enough at night, but with the competitiveness of students and the many activities they are involved in, they don't have a lot of time left.Sleep loss can take a devastating toll on the mind and body at any stage of life, from early childhood to older adulthood. But for teenagers, who are at a critical stage of development, skipping out on sleep can be particularly dangerous.In the teen years, when development continues the sleep deprivation effects of brain and body development are significant. Naps in school are usually frowned upon, but it

Adolescents don’t choose to stay up late; they do know the consequences of being tired the next day. “The starting time of school puts limits on the time available for sleep, this is a nonnegotiable limit established largely without concern