Starting School Later Essay

575 Words2 Pages

When you think of a successful, adaptable, bright teen who pays attention in class and isn’t constantly distracted or sleeping, what do you think is the leading cause? Although many argue that sleeping and waking up early are signs of a well-conducted student, studies show that starting school later helps teens get closer to this point. Starting school later in the morning would be a great boost for students around the world. For starters, starting school later will help students get the right amount of sleep so they can pay attention and be orderly in class. Teens often have the habit of going to sleep late and then sleeping in whenever they can. However, this sleep pattern is influenced by biological sleep requirements and circadian rhythms that rule their sleep patterns. Their homeostatic sleep drive makes them tired while they are awake, and this weakens throughout adolescence. The circadian rhythm lets the body know when it is the right time to sleep, during adolescence the time tends to shift to a later time. This is known as Delayed Phase Preference. …show more content…

Research from the National Sleep Foundation discovered that schools that shifted opening hours to 8:30 a.m. and later had a positive effect on the attendance of students and graduation rates. Another study conducted by the Journal of Sleep Medicine states that if school start times were shifted later, there would likely be heightened focus, fewer mistakes caused by lack of attention and impulsivity, and an enhanced rate of performance. Additionally, Professor Finley Edwards’s research on middle schools in Wake County, North Carolina, discovered that delaying school start times by an hour led to an increase in test scores. It increased the average test score in Math by an average of 2 percentile points and 1.5 percentile points in English. Classes later in the day definitely have an impact on student grades and graduation

Open Document