School Start Time Synthesis Essay

606 Words3 Pages

Teenage years are some of the most important years of a persons life because, in these years, a large amount of physical development occurs; this is why sleep during this time is so important. However, many teens are not getting the sleep that is healthy for them due to the early start times of many schools. Some schools have already taken the initiative to delay school hours to help solve this problem and several systems have been put into place to make this process of delaying school start times easier. Getting the proper amount of hours of sleep per night also benefits GPA, learning capabilities, the immune system, and several other things. Because the early start times of many schools are causing teens to become sleep deprived, the start time of schools should be delayed especially after …show more content…

One study on the effects of amount of sleep on GPA showed that those who got less that 5 hours of sleep per night received just under a 3.1 GPA on average (Source B); on the other hand, those who got 7 or more hours of sleep per night received just under a 3.4 GPA on average (Source B). This is most likely because "sleep helps the brain to commit new information to memory" (Source H) which improves learning and memory. Delaying school start times would help to improve the GPA's of students. Besides grades, getting little sleep each night also has a negative effect on health. "Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite;... [has] been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat;...[and] alters immune function, including the activity of the body's killer cells" (Source H). Sleep deprivation is a serious issue and could be improved through the delaying of school hours to give students more time to