Why School Should Start Later

With ever-growing societal and academic pressures, teens are finding it harder than ever to fit a healthy amount of sleep and personal time into their schedules. Many students find themselves awake late at night doing homework just to maintain good grades, leaving little time for the precious sleep required for the proper growth and development of the brain. This is only the start of the vicious cycle that leaves teens sleep-deprived, falling behind, and overwhelmed with immense feelings of stress. Shifting school start times to later in the morning can help alleviate this cycle and better align with the natural sleep schedules of teens. This change will allow students to get the proper amount of sleep, enabling better focus in school and improving …show more content…
During puberty, this cycle is disrupted and can delay melatonin production anywhere from 1-2 hours. This means rather than starting to feel tired around 9 p.m., a teen would start to feel tired around 10-11 p.m.. Since the production is delayed, the body also takes longer to stop producing the hormone. So, if the average student wakes up around 6 a.m., in order to achieve at least eight full hours of sleep they would have to go to bed before 10 p.m., but with extracurricular activities, most students do not get home until 6:30 or later depending on whether or not practice or club activities extend later, this will leave a student with roughly three and a half hours to eat dinner, shower, do their chores, and do at least an hour's worth of homework all before going to bed at a time that gives them a full eight hours of sleep. I am a snob. This demanding schedule is not suitable for a healthy student lifestyle because it limits personal and family time. When a student lacks this time, it can lead them to feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and …show more content…
Sleep is not the only benefit of starting school later. Another article written by the American Psychological Association claims, “Observed from later High School start times include, increased attendance rates, a decrease in disciplinary action, a decrease in student involved car accidents, an increase in student GPA, an increase in state assessment scores, an increase in College admission test scores, an increase in student attention, a decrease in student sleeping during instruction”(Later school times promote adolescent well-being, American Psychological Association). An article written by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia claims similar things with the addition that, “...students report less depression, caffeine use, and drowsy driving, and fewer teen motor vehicle crashes are reported.” (Meltzer, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia PolicyLab). The CDC also claims that lack of sleep contributes to “ several health risks including being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using drugs” (Schools Start Too Early | Sleep and Sleep Disorders, Centers for Disease Control and

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