Why High School Should Start Later Essay

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87 percent of high school teens are not getting the sleep that is recommended for a healthy lifestyle. Because, school starts at an early time, the time for sleep is compressed to a point where their minds and bodies are not ready to be awake (Richter, Ruthann). Due to having cell phones teens are staying up later, after doing homework to check their social media account, talk to family members, and to catch up on the new they missed out on in school or while doing homework. With the academic stress that is put on to teenagers in this modern world that has so much to offer and not enough time to seek it all, many come home from various practices and jobs just to do four to five hours of homework from advanced classes or even extra work from level classes that are required in all schools. The school should reduce the amount of homework given every night …show more content…

Stage one is the lightest stage of the cycle, in this stage, people drift in and out of sleep and can be easily awakened. The second stage eye movement begins to stop and brain waves become slower with a small burst of brain waves every once and awhile. Stage three very slow delta waves are intersected with smaller shorter waves. With stage four the brain only produces delta waves. Stage three and four are deep sleep, in deep sleep, there is no eye movement or muscle activity. Lastly is REM sleep, which stands for rapid eye movement, in this stage people experience rapid, slow shallow breaths, eye jerking at a fast paced, and temporary paralysis. Also in this stage blood pressure rises, heart rate goes up and the body loses the ability to regulate temperature. During this time is when most dreams happen, if people awake during REM sleep they will most likely be able to remember these dreams. Adults spend half of sleep time in stage 2, about 20% in REM and the other 30% is divided between the other three stages (Stages of

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