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The effects of sleep deprivation on academic performance
Effects of sleep deprivation on students academic performance
Effects of sleep deprivation on students academic performance
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Have you ever had a restless night of sleep? The feelings of achiness and fatigue overwhelms you the whole day. Now imagine that you slept this was every night. Accomplishing simple tasks would be difficult if one is sleep deprived. Performing at your potential would almost be impossible. In order to get rid of these unforgettable feeling many people would sleep late and go to bed early. But with such early start times for high school many students feel sleep deprived and do not achieve their best. Doing so would improve students health. Some individuals feel that keeping the start times at their current time would be best for parents and school districts. However, many people believe that delaying school start times would positively impact students, outweighing the disadvantages. I believe that delaying school start times would be a magnificent idea for many schools. One reason why high school should start later than elementary schools is that with such early start times, the average high school students do not get enough sleep and are considered sleep deprived. According to a survey completed by The National Sleep Foundation, only 20% of high school students sleep the optimal 9 hours on school nights and 60% of children under the age of 18 have complained that they are tired throughout the school day to their parents (“School Start”). Sleep depravity is very common among high school students. With disadvantaged sleep patterns, adolescents have decreased mental sharpness and ability to pay attention during school hours. Therefore, grades and test scores are lower than their potential. In fact, “a recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation showed that only 20 percent of teenagers report getting the optimal 9 hours of sleep o... ... middle of paper ... ...ld be an aspect school districts should evaluate. However, others may feel that pushing back start times would interfere with parent and administrative schedules. Clearly, the best viewpoint on this subject is to revise start times for high schools in order for students to obtain a more desirable sleep cycle and overall improved health. Works Cited Dawson, Peg, EdD. "Wakin' Up Is Hard to Do: The Challenge of Sleep in Teen Years." Wakin' Up Is Hard to Do: The Challenge of Sleep in the Teen Years. Duke TIP, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. "Eight Major Obstacles to Delaying School Start Times." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. "School Start Time and Sleep." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. "Teens and Sleep." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Firstly, in the first article, a girl named Jilly Dos Santos stands up to the school and makes the school starting time later, by leading many students to help change the starting time. It also talks about how even students reading the article can step up and show their opinion to their school district about school starting times! in the article it states,” Your body isn't just on a later schedule though— your brain also needs more total hours of sleep (about 9.25 a night) to function at its best. Sadly, most teens are able to squeeze in only about 7.1 hours, on average.” This shows that if people don’t change the school starting times, most teenagers are losing around 2 hours of needing rest! in conclusion, if people like Jilly Dos Santos step up to change school times, teenagers may finally be able to get the
This leaves students with less than the recommended 9 hours of sleep. Students that have to stay up that late for homework will be tired in the morning, even if their school starts later. Many people argue that starting schools later will let students get more sleep and align with the students sleep cycles. But they do not factor in that students will just stay up later at night because they know that they do not have to get up as early in the morning. This will just leave students with less sleep than before.
3 Apr. 2014. Wolfson, Amy R., et al. " Middle School Start Times: The Importance of a Good Night's Sleep for Young Adolescents." Behavioral Sleep Medicine 5.3 (2007): 194-209.
“Study: Many high school students don’t get enough sleep; performance suffers.” Health & Medicine Week 19 May 2013: 58. Academic Universe: Document. Lexis-Nexis. 13 Nov. 2013
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.
In “High School Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens” the author claims that high schoolers need more sleep. The author says that over 20% of students in high school students fall asleep in class because they don’t get sleep. Experts say that teens need about 9 hours of sleep a day. Schools in some states had switched the elementary school time with the high school time as a test. To see if students are more alert at a later time. Studies
High School students are decreasing in standardized test scores and attendance due to lack of sleep. It has been proven by research in miscellaneous High Schools around the US that with just one hour of extra sleep student's test score increased along with their attendance records. The extra hour will also give you more time in the morning to finish homework and other things that you did not have time for the night before. However, others believe that the extra time added onto the end of the school day will interfer with afterschool activities such as sports practices and games. Schools should change to later start within the next year because it will help improve the lives of students along with their academics as well.
Schools that start before 8 a.m. are a major reason students aren’t getting adequate sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teenagers need on average 8 ½ - 9 ½ hours of sleep a night(Schute, Nancy). Realistically students
Later May Help Sleepy Teens”). A late start would definitely increase the attendance and alertness of students. Compared to the meager performance of the sleep deprived students, a few extra hours of sleep would definitely make them more productive. High schools who started having later starts are producing positive results. A University of Minnesota study this year used many school districts such as Minneapolis to St. Paul who have later start times, and found the safety and educational benefits (The Editorial Board, “High Schools: Wake Up to Later Start Times: Our View”).
In a country that is searching for answers as to why its children are not performing at top capacity, it seems fairly obvious that one of these “answers” may be found in the time at which they start their school day. A kid’s general schedule in the morning is to wake up and go to school, yet doing this as early as 5 a.m. is causing many to question why the kids have to wake up so early. The health and grades of kids are being shown to be lower due to school start times, so the problem’s best resolution is to have the times change to later. School is causing a health worry. They aren’t getting enough sleep, when they need it most to develop their brains.
A question that most school districts have recently been discussing is, do middle schools and high schools start classes too early in the morning? As a student, I am concerned with the effects of waking up too early and not getting the amount of sleep that my body needs. In order for teenagers to get their needed eight to nine hours of sleep every night, schools should start thirty to sixty minutes later than they do now. Well rested students will be following their natural sleep patterns, perform better academically, and will have a healthier mindset. With a selective schedule we will be able to work around bus schedules and extracurricular activities to accommodate for a new and improved bell time.
Aubrey, A. (2013, December 2). Parents Of Sleep-Deprived Teens Push For Later School Start Times. NPR. Retrieved March 4, 2014, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/12/02/247314202/parents-of-sleep-deprived-teens-push-for-later-school-start-times
"It’s time to wake up, sleepyhead.” “You better get up or you’ll miss the bus.” Teenagers across the U.S. are being forced to wake up when their bodies are telling them otherwise. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (2014) recognized adolescent sleep deprivation as a public health issue and released a policy statement recommending that high schools and middle schools not start before 8:30 a.m. (Boyland, Lori, 2015). Despite this recommendation, many school districts across the United States are disregarding this announcement and starting school, as early as 7:10 a.m. Some teenagers struggle with performing at the high levels needed to be successful in today’s schools because of early start times. Stakeholders, such as parents
Should school start at 7:00 or should it start later in the morning? In Douglas High School, start times are at 7:30 in the morning. Changing the school schedule to a later start time would result in many other changes affecting a lot of people. According to the Sleep Foundation, "The change will affect the entire community, from students and parents to businesses, libraries, police, youth sports clubs, bus drivers and many others." Altering the school schedule would influence numerous aspects of people’s lives. Highly coordinated routines would have to be changed and adapted to the new schedule. A later release time would take time off of students’ free time in the afternoon. Clubs, sports, jobs, and other after-school activities would have
The alarm goes off at six am and the typical high school student is barely able to open their eyes. It is time to get up and prepare for a full day at school, about eight hours. Most teenagers, according to the National Sleep Foundation, will only get about six hours of sleep since they tend to stay up until midnight (“Should schools start later in the day?”). After getting ready, many students look forward to a nap in their first hour class despite the information they will miss. Teenagers seem to always have had trouble getting up in the morning, even earning the title of lazy from their parents. However, recent research on adolescent sleep patterns has produced a biological explanation for this tendency. This raises a serious question: why are high schools starting early in the morning when teenagers are biologically programmed to sleep in? For most cases, school start time has not been conformed to fit student physiological needs simply because of transportation issues.