Why We Should Start Later In High School Essay

970 Words4 Pages

Groggy, tired, depressed, can’t think straight. These are things that most students experience every day. School start times are causing students to miss out on sleep, causing sleep deprivation. This can lead to depression, increased rate of car crashes and a decrease in cognitive thinking abilities. Not only can the amount of sleep a student receives affect their performance in school, but also their health and safety. To reduce the amount of sleep deprivation in students a possible solution is to make the start time of high schools later in the morning. By moving the start times of high schools by an hour or two later, sleep deprivation can be greatly decreased as well as increased performance and safety. School start times must be pushed back in order to allow for students to receive a higher quality as well as more sleep. Current school start times do not allow for most students to receive optimum sleep because of the circadian rhythm in the majority of students. The amount of sleep needed for teenagers is about 9 hours per night, which does not change between ages 10 and 17 (Wolfson). From high schools across the nation, this need is not met on average. Majority of students experience about 7 hours on average. This lack of sleep is due not only in part of such an early start time for schools, but also …show more content…

At least 9 hours must be achieved every night for optimum rest and growth, but current school start times do not allow for that. A strong case has been made to make the change by scientifically showing the effects of sleep deprivation, yet most school districts in the U.S. have still not implemented such a system. In the future, a stronger sense of appreciation and understanding should be given to high school students by at the very least, considering their biological needs and moving start times to later in the