Essay On School Start Time

A good number of adolescents are lacking sleep and are performing poorly both academically and physically. As a result, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pushing educational policymakers to make middle and high schools start later in the morning (Richmond). Students show up to class seriously lacking sleep and the early start times cause them to have to wake up at hours that contradict their internal clocks, which are rhythms that determine sleep patterns. Less than half of the 10th graders get even seven hours of sleep, which is already less than the recommended hours of sleep for an adolescent (Richmond). Even if teenagers go to bed earlier, their school start times are becoming more early as they advance through grades

In order to determine whether the previous results from Minnesota were accurate, researchers conducted a study on the impact of delaying the school start time by half an hour as well as observing how it affects teens ' moods, behaviors, and daytime sleepiness (Burke 37). The experiment was conducted on students from an independent high school in Rhode Island (Burke 37). Nearly 200 students varying from grades 9 through 12 took the Sleep Habits Survey online once before the start time was adjusted and again, two months after it was changed from 8:00 AM to 8:30 AM. The survey consisted of a comprehensive, 8 page survey that had questions centered around sleep behaviors (Burke 37). After analyzing the data, what the researchers found was intriguing. The amount of students getting less than 7 hours of sleep every night went down by 97.4% from the time of the first survey to the second. Those who were receiving 8 or more hours a night increased all the way from 16.4% to 54.7% (Burke 37). Although the number of students reporting bad quality of sleep and short sleep duration decreased significantly from the first survey to the next, students still had difficulty falling asleep several times a week (Burke 37). The second survey also reported a decrease in fatigue, sleepiness during the day, and symptoms of depression. Most health-related issues and complaints such as class attendance and visits to the school 's nurse’s office also decreased from the first survey to the other (Burke

In the end, changing school times is definitely not a simple process, but is it worth it? Despite the changes that would have to take place, it may be worthwhile to achieve the results that some schools have accomplished by delaying their start time half an hour (Burke 37). Schools should have later start times because it would let students get more sleep, improve their performance, and keep them healthier. If school start times continue to be outrageously early, there may be serious repercussions to students of all ages