Why Schools Should Start Later Essay

Words: 528
Pages: 3

Teenage Sleep: Schools Delaying Start Time
Nine to eight hours of sleep is recommended for teens, yet, “two out of three U.S. high school students sleep less than eight hours on school nights.” Alertness during and after school is vital for students. Getting the right amount of sleep enforces correct healthy behavior for teens. “Five out of six U.S. middle and high schools start the school day before 8:30 A.M.” Recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, “middle and high schools should aim to start no earlier than 8:30 A.M. to enable students to get adequate sleep.” Schools should start later than 8:30 A.M. for students’ academic success, preventing unhealthy behavior, and should be in sync with teens' biological clock.
Students justify that, if without that recommended amount of sleep, they function inadequately during their classes. Overall grades and attentiveness can be affected if teens are deprived of sleep. Setting the mood for the rest of the day, teens are often drowsy in their first classes. There is the “cloud over their head that affects their mood and behavior.” Misbehaving can get you into trouble, which would ultimately ruin your chances to get into a god college. Delaying the time would prevent any
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A “biological clock” is your bodies way of “waking your body up” and telling you when to eat every day. If the “time” gets interrupted every morning by the early school start time, the clock will be altered unhealthily and will become out of sync with its natural “time”. When adolescents are maturing, the biological clock tends to move around and shift. Why interrupt it even more with early start times? A certain amount of kids has to wake up around 5:00 A.M. because it takes time to get ready and then head onto the bus at 6:20 A.M. All this altering can have an effect on kids’ lifestyle as they grow