Why School 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

I am implying that Redondo Beach Unified School district and schools around the country should change schedules to start an hour later. My first reason why we should is that some students who have to walk to school or walk to the bus in the morning while it is dark outside, with few or none adults to accompany them which puts them in danger, along with teens who

One reason is that if school times started later kids would get more sleep during the night. More sleep will help the kids stay awake in class and will focus more which will lead them to learn more. Paying more attention and learning more in classes will lead to higher grades. Also if kids get more sleep because of later start times they will be a lot healthier. “What If Schools Started Later by Jennifer Pignolet tells us about the benefits on later school days.

The article Should School Stay Earlier? by elenam112 states “This means the school would be open longer, resulting in larger electrical and heating bills.” Schools would need to stay open later at night for after school activities and stay open early in the morning for students who are dropped off early. Schools may even have to purchase lights for after school activities. Schools would also have to change their bus transportation systems which are designed to run as efficiently and inexpensively as possible. The average national cost that schools need to pay for each student’s bus transportation is $459. Changing the system could result in many more

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

A piece of evidence to support the claim that schools shouldn’t start later is from “Support for sleeping in? Half of parents favor later school start times for teens” by Mental Health Weekly Digest and it states,”... there are real life concerns about how the change may interfere with after-school activities, logistics and school budgets.” This shows that sleeping later would various disadvantages for after-school activities, along with the logics and the amount of money that the school would be spending. Since schools need the money to help fund competitions and other activities, they won’t be able to achieve going to any of those if increasing amounts of money is being used for supporting later school start times.

School starting later does have it’s positive affects it also has its negative effects as well. School starting later would allow students to sleep later, but according to the High Schools with late start times help teens but schedules and after-school can conflict, “potential complications,such as additional costs if buses were added, child-care issues where late-day schedules might prevent teens from picking up younger siblings after school, and implications for teams if they end up playing in the dark.” According to Fox News Megan Kuhfeld says, a student in California,” I enjoyed waking up later than everyone else in the area next to me where there were early start times, but as a member of the tennis team, she had to miss sixth and seventh period classes to compete at other schools.” Although school starting later would give teens more time to sleep, it would cause conflicts between their schedules after

School should start later because, the students have gotten less than recommended amount of sleep considering, teens tend to stay up later doing school work. And they’re having to wake up early to get to school. With that there are consequences to that routine student commit to, and it takes a toll on them. Why do you think schools should start later? Since majority of schools begin early in the morning, most students opt out from eating breakfast just so adolescents can make it to school on time.

School should start later rather than earlier because if school starts later teens won’t have so much of a problem with getting up in the morning. Also if school starts later kids school work will improve and help their grades in the long run. Schools starting later will improve many things such as grades and homework being turned in on time. Also with more sleep students might also improve the way kids view school.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.