Why School Should Start Later

With a later school start students would not be as sleep deprived.Doctors recommend that teens get 8 to 9 hours of sleep per night. With teens getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep would also make it better for students getting to school.This would be beneficial to teen drivers.

Teenagers need more sleep. If schools start school later, students would be less tired. A study of eight schools in Minnesota started school 1 hour later and grades and morale went up and tardiness went down. It has been scientifically proven in a test they did in Minnesota that 8 schools stated later and most of the students grades went up they were happier and everyone seemed more

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.

Jilly Dos Santos found that teens need at least 8.5 hours of sleep every night. Due to how early school is starting, most teens are only getting about 6-7 hours of sleep. A later start time would also help teachers get more sleep. Teachers would also be appreciative because their students would be more alert, listen better, and get better grades. This could help kids have higher graduation rates and better report card/progress

In fact, a study in 1998 conducted by Brown University tracked 10th graders switching to a 7:20 start time one hour earlier than their previous start time. Unfortunately, almost all of them went to bed at the same time as they had before. Fewer than half of them got even 7 hours of sleep. Even Anne Wheaton, lead author/epidemiologist of the CDC Division of Population Health agrees. “Getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance.”

Typically, people enjoy receiving an extra hour of sleep, even an extra five minutes of sleep. Teens are just one group of people who enjoy sleep. Unfortunately, teens are unable to obtain the correct number of hours per night. Later school start times would be beneficial because the schools would see an impact on attendance, increased school performance, and based on several studies, students would receive the recommended amount of sleep. The psychological effects would greatly outweigh the negative effects caused by an early start time. Benefits of a later start time include, better health, improved grades and teens reaching the recommended amount of sleep per night. Downfalls of starting school later would be transportation issues, coddling

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.

Many high school students wander into school each day shuffling around and trying not to pass out in their classes. In order to cut back on sleep-deprived teens, we must follow through with this solution; it would give students enough time to go to bed early and wake up at an appropriate time. According to Sleep Foundation, teenagers require eight to ten hours of sleep and are not getting that with the current schedule. Many teenagers have discombobulated biological clocks and need the opportunity to adjust their sleeping schedule as they see fit. If this plan were to be put into practice, more positive attitudes would emerge from schools all over America due to their fulfilled need of sleep, which would give teachers, students, principals, counselors, and even parents a more productive start to each day. On the other hand, I realize that the opposing side of this intelligent solution may proclaim that some teenagers would abuse this and go to bed even later, but people must also realize that a large amount of teenagers who wish to succeed academically would gladly not abuse this and respect this privilege; although there would be some teenagers to mistreat this, it is up to the maturity level of the student, and they choose whether they want to succeed or

Schools should start later because the lack of sleep deteriorates a teens mental health, lowered their immune system, and even causes lower test grades. Between middle schoolers and high schoolers getting enough sleep has caused many problems. Even though some people say it will mess up the transportation system, a teens health seems more important. Besides with more sleep you'll have a happier teen.

“studies show that adolescents who don't get enough sleep often suffer mental health problems” (let them sleep). It's easy to avoid this problem by allowing schools to start later. Schools should start later to allow kids more sleep and reduce stress.

As this school year goes on students will find themselves unable to wake up bright and early for school. Every morning children have the constant struggle of getting ready in time to catch the early morning bus, they usually don’t even have time for a healthy breakfast! That is outrageous, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and it gives kids the power they need to get through the day. Also having school so early effects students sleep, health/wellbeing, and the adults around them. All of these problems could be solved with one simple change.

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.

Teen students need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep per night, though many only get 6 to 7 hours of sleep as a result of early high school start times. Changing school start times in high schools is the only way to combat the gap between the times. Considering that many teens cannot fall asleep before 11 pm, modifying start times is the best way to improve students health. Changing school start times is beneficial to high school students, modifying start times would improve students health, improve driving skills, as well as save money for the school districts. Changing high school start times is beneficial to student’s health and well being.

There may be some of you out there who simply believe, “Why don’t they just go to sleep earlier?” The truth is, that the biological clock in adolescents can change on average two hours from middle school into high school, which means that they are supposed to go to sleep at 11 and wake up at around 8 (“Teens Need”). This time frame is not taken into account in high school start times, which suggest adolescents going to sleep at 9 and waking up at 6. The time suggested by the schools goes against a high schooler 's biological clock, leaving most teens going to sleep around 11 and waking up at an average time of 5:30; a mere 6 ½ hours of sleep is achieved with this time frame, 3 hours less than what has been recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (Maloney-Dunn). The American Academy of Pediatrics suggest a high school start time of 8:30 or later

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.