As stressful as our high school life is, students try their best to cope with the stress and obstacles they may face. Students are occupied by school, extracurricular activities and jobs which are very important towards their future. However, students should prioritize academic achievements over anything else. The best way to help a student achieve their best in education, schools must start at a later time. A later start time offers students extended time to sleep, good nutrition, while also allowing them to participate in extracurricular activities.
School starting at a later time promises benefits for students such as increased sleep time. Sleep is important to everyone, especially high school students who can be affected negatively if they are deprived from it. Sleep is beneficial, as it provides rest to help the body function. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers require at least nine hours of sleep. However teenagers do not have proper sleep due to attending school early, taking part in extracurricular activities, or having a part time job. These factors force’s teenagers to sleep at a later time which limits the period they can sleep for. A later start time would allow students to sleep in the morning to meet the required nine hours. Deprivation of sleep can cause teenagers to develop sleeping disorders such as narcolepsy and insomnia which can be extremely harmful and affect their behaviour immensely. In 2006, the National Sleep Foundation surveyed students where “46 percent reported to be depressed” (SleepFoundation, 2013). Of those who claimed to be depressed, “73 percent reported that they also did not have enough sleep” (SleepFoundation, 2013). This proved that one of the main causes for student’s ...
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Despite popular opinion, to be beneficial, schools should continue on their current schedules, and not start later. Starting schools later can have a variety of positive and negative consequences on students. Schools currently are at a time that gives students enough lesson time to learn subjects, but still have time to relax and take part in other activities after school. Also many families depend on the time school starts to have easy transportation to school and work. Starting schools later will take away students time to do activities of their choice such as spend time with their families, socialize with others, and participate in extracurricular activities.
How many times has this happened to you; it’s six thirty on a Tuesday morning, your alarm has already gone off twice, your still laying in bed and your bus comes in twenty minutes. This is an everyday occurrence at my house. It is a proven statistic that the average high school student does not get enough sleep. While some experts like Dr. Lee Yanku say “It is not the schools starting time that is the problem as to why students don’t get enough sleep, it is because of facebook, myspace and cell phones” The truth behind it is that we can’t budget sports, homework and extracurricular activities into one day and still get nine hours of sleep. This is hurting student’s academic averages and needs to change. Changing the school time will help boost academic averages among students, and isn’t th...
... Beginning high school an hour later might possibly make things a little easier. It is evident that it would improve health, if the students take advantage of the extra hour. But it could also improve grades, abilities and motivation. Beginning school later makes the difficult job of waking up in the morning effortless and enjoyable.
“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!” The teenage student slams on the snooze button and struggles to get out of bed for the early school day. Teens on average need 9 ¼ hours of sleep (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Teens currently average fewer than 7 hours of sleep (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Hectic schedules, poor sleep habits, homework, and family obligations are the problem (Backgrounder: Later School Start Times). Schools are considering starting their school days later in the morning. For example, one Minneapolis school considered pushing back their start time from 7:15 to 8:30. Another Seattle school considers pushing back the school day start reported Jean Enersen. Would this benefit the students or harm the students? Is this for the better or for the worse? These are questions many superintendents and school board members are asking themselves. They all want to do what is best for their students, so the topic takes a lot of thinking, planning, and conversations. School starting later can be a very controversial issue.
Although sizeable information exists for the concepts that early school start times are destructive to adolescents’ health and well-being along with delaying school start times results in real and constant benefits to students, the current debate among school districts in the United States regarding school systems later start times for middle and high schools continues to spark controversy.
Lack of sleep of teens is not caused by choice. Many teens do not choose to stay up late at night because they are out or having fun. The body has circadian rhythms. “These rhythms are generated internally and develop without any social or environmental cues. Adolescents experience a natural circadian phase delay and, therefore, tend to stay up later and sleep in later than in preadolescents” (Final Report Summary, 2001). The opening and closing schedules of schools are not based on these rhythms but are based on the business world and what is best for it. “School schedules should be adapted to the unique needs of different sub-populations of pupils. The administrator must not bear the sole responsibility for planning class schedules” (...
“Sleep deprivation is epidemic among adolescents, with potentially serious impacts on mental and physical health, safety, and learning. Most teenagers undergo a biological shift to a later sleep-wake up cycle, which can make early school start times particularly challenging.” says Boergers.
It’s seven thirty in the morning, the time that most American high schools begin class. Instead of being chipper and ready to learn, most teenagers, at this time of the morning, can barely remain awake. These puffy eyed pupils are by no means ready to learn. Sixty percent children under 18 reported being sleepy during the day, with another fifteen percent reporting that they had fallen asleep during the school day within the past year (National Sleep Foundation, Dozing). Though adolescents require a larger amount of sleep than younger children, they usually receive much less (Indiana University Center for Adolescent Studies). The amount of sleep a teenager receives affects him or her both physically and mentally. Sleep deprived teenagers are more likely to be irritable, be depressed, not perform up to their capabilities in school, and have a decreased ability to handle complex tasks (National Parent Information Network). Though teenage sleep deprivation is a big problem, some simple solutions such as rescheduling the school day to fit teenagers’ biological needs, setting consistent sleep schedules, and teaching children the importance of proper sleep habits can easily remedy this problem.
Schools starting later will allow students’ brains to wake up fully. In the opinion of Donn Dexter he believes “high school students are reported to be excessively sleepy, resulting in decreased academic performance, increased psycho-social problems and increased risk of morbidity and mortality from accidents. Early school start times have been noted to contribute
70% of high school students, like you and me, are sleep deprived; this means getting less than 7 hours of sleep. The teenage body needs relevant to 8 to 10 hours of sleep because the body is going through an important stage of growth and development. We get this sleep at delayed hours, like 11 p.m. and 12 a.m., due to chemical imbalance during our teenage years. In behalf of this delayed balance and early rising for school purposes, the body and brain are negatively impacted. The only known solution to this epidemic is schools having a later start time. Schools should start later because it could eliminate mental disorders and improve health, causing classroom grades to exceed.
Sleep is an important human function, and without it your body is unable to do the human tasks it is normally able to do. Not sleeping can cause harmful results. Many schools have researched and examined information on what would be the best start time for students to perform at their best. Most students do not get the recommended 8 to 10 hours of sleep needed in order to function properly. Most teens do not get enough sleep — one study found that only 15% reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights,” (Teens and Sleep). Limiting the amount of time you sleep affects your personality as well as ability to function. Therefore, many districts have reviewed their start times to start later, in order to see more refined results.
Every day in the United States, students find themselves lying in bed struggling to get out of bed and prepare himself for the school day. Teenagers have spent too much time the night before on social media or watching netflix. However, current research from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that biological and physiological factors play a major role in determining how teenagers’ brains simply are not designed to sleep more than a few hours each night, and as a result, teens are sleepy and have trouble focusing on school work in their early morning classes, and they exhibit behavior issues and reckless driving. This issue is not an easy matter to resolve without facing some difficulties, but every problem requires some sacrifices to become feasible. The solution is complicated, but for the sake of safety and success, schools should change start times so that
Studies have shown that depression in teenagers can be directly linked to a lack of sleep which can come from having to get up so early in the morning for school (“School Start Time”). If schools are trying their best to lessen depression and anxiety in their students, they should strongly consider starting later because although not all cases of depression have to do with a lack of sleep, a lot of them do. Also, lack of sleep can lead to problems with moods in teenagers. In an article titled, “What Lack of Sleep Does to Your Mind,” it states that lack of sleep “causes irritability and anger and may lessen your ability to cope with stress” (Peri). This is very problematic because irritability and anger can cause problems in teenagers’ relationships with others. Also, a lessened ability to handle stress is harmful especially to teenagers because many students are given heavy workloads in classes and time-consuming sports and work schedules. All of these mental health effects from lack of sleep are not just short-term problems, they can be long-term and can have a negative effect later on in students’ daily lives and even in their workplaces. If schools started later, there would be positive effects such as the increase in positive thinking, the possible decrease in cases of depression, and even reduced anger problems in
"Not getting enough sleep is common among high school students and is associated with several health risks including being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using drugs, as well as poor academic performance" this is according to CDC,gov. This is an issue that goes on with the students of every school the students always look tired or just not concentrated. Having an early start for school is a problem that needs to be fixed because students and staff aren’t able to function that early in the morning. A reasonable time is 9 a.m. by this time the students and staff should have ate a good breakfast because many students and staff eat at fast food places just because they don’t have enough time to eat breakfast from home. Studies
Fifty six percent of students report being tired throughout the school day, which can lead to missed information and confusion (Wysong). According to this statistic, over half the students in class are not going to achieve their maximum learning potential in school. In order to avoid this problem, a teenager's brain typically needs to sleep from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am (“High schools starting later to help sleepy teens”). However, most high schools require students to be in class as early as 7:15 or 7:30 am. As a result, many adolescents simply do not have the opportunity to get enough rest. Changing the traditional school time to start later in the day will benefit adolescent sleep cycles, promote learning, and prevent disease by regulating the body. Ideally,...