Essay On School Start Time

As a sophomore student at Kimberly High School, I would like to take some time to talk about delaying the school start time. Having a later school start time would benefit the students at Kimberly High School because it allows time to eat a healthy breakfast, it will not interrupt teens sleep cycle, which will help improve academic performance.

Having a later school start time allows students to have time to eat a healthy breakfast. As the article “Students Benefit from Later Start to School Day” on the CBS News website by Hannah Atkin it talks about more students having the ability to eat a hot and nutritious breakfast. Patricia Moss, an academic dean believes, “The healthy breakfast was a strong contributor in the increased alertness throughout

the morning.” To be honest, having time to eat a healthy breakfast allows kids to have more energy throughout the day, which helps their school day. Being a student myself when I have more time in the morning to eat breakfast, on a wednesday when the start time is later, makes me less likely to snack throughout the whole day, and it allows me to focus in my classes more. With a higher amount of focus I am able to achieve higher academic standards that day.

Having a later start time will allow students to sleep so their sleeping cycle is not inturupted. The CBS News page explains in the article “Students Benefit from Later Start to School Day” by Hannah Atkin, “Teens tends to be in their deepest sleep around dawn- when they typically need to get up for school. Interrupting that sleep can leave them groggy, especially since they also have trouble falling asleep before 11pm.” Interrupting students deepest sleep times minimizes the students ability to be at their fullest potential. If the start of the school day is later, the students will have time to fully complete their sleep cycle without being interrupted. Because I am a student, I have to get up early on a daily basis to go to school. If the school day was later and I could sleep in later I would feel more awake, I would be at my fullest potential.

With later start times students have an improved school performance. According to the New Research page in the journal “Delaying School Starting Time by One Hour: Some Effects on Attention Levels in Adolescents” by Dubi Lufi, Ph.D, Orna Tzischinsky, Ph.D, and Stav Hadar, M.A., “ When the student sleep longer, they performed better on tests requiring attention.” Students who are given a chance to sleep longer are going to take that opportunity, which will help them have a better academic performance in school. Going to Kimberly, academics are very important. The high school has very high standards for the students academics, and if the school day started later the standards could be risen even more because students will have the ability to do so.

Some may say that having a later start time would affect after school activities.

The National Sleep Foundation page explains in the article “Eight Major Obstacles to Delaying School Start Times” explains, “Later start times may cause later ending times which then some athletes might have to leave class early. That means students have to choose between a game and a test, a choice no student should have to make.” This could cause issues with athletics and school assignments. While that does not have to be the case, some schools who have delayed their start time changed match times so that the students do not have to leave their classes early. By doing so some schools even saw an increase in participation in sports and it even improved their performance as a team. Furthermore, some schools cut 5 to 10 minutes off of each class to make sure that the school day would end on time, and that guaranteed extracurricular activities were not affected. Some schools saw the time lost as a benefit because the students were much more alert and productive during the school day. Lastly, if none of those are an option practice times could be researched and lights could be installed so that the practices can run later. If one thinks about it, starting the school day later has many benefits, and will not affect after school activities, but also it improves the student's academic

work.

As being from Kimberly High School some may say it would affect after school activities like sports practices, games or tutoring, but delaying the start time has more positives than negatives. Having a later school start time would not only let the students have a full sleep cycle and eat a healthy breakfast, but it would improve their academic and classroom performance all the way around.