The Importance Of Sleep Deprivation In High School

Wake Up: High School Starts too Early

The teacher's lecture quickly becomes unrecognizable mumblings as the students slips into sleep. All hope of passing the test slips away as their eye lids close. After school, the tennager starts driving home, runs a stop sign, and nearly gets in an accident. Sleep deprivation is plummeting their grades and nearly killing them.

Officials have been searching for a way to alleviate the problem of teen sleep deprivation for decades. In the 1990s State Legislatures and Congress passed acts on when schools should start. In an attempt to lessen sleep deprivation and crime, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a bill in 1997-98 prohibiting schools from starting before 8 a.m. (Pappas). Similarly, in 1998 the

House of Representatives passed a resolution stating that school should consider starting after 9 o’clock (H.R. Res. 296). Congress also provided an incentive of $25,000 to any school that would move their start times to after 9 a.m. (H.R. 4131). Despite pushes from congress, schools across the nation still start early in the morning.
In recent discussions of what can be done to combat the epidemic of teenagers not getting enough sleep, it has been debated whether or not starting school later would allow high school students to get more sleep. Some say that changing start times would cause more problems than it would solve. However, scientific research shows that later school start times would boost school performance, decrease the number of accidents, and improve health. Despite the benefits, some argue against later school start times for high school.
Many school officials and school board members believe that changing school start times would cost too much and adversely affect after school activities.

Ted Velkoff is the vice chairman of the school board in Fairfax County, Virginia. He claims that different start times will impact the whole community negatively. School boards have to recognize consequences that will result, and decided if the cost is worth the benefit. New buses would be required, resulting in less money for the school to spend on needed education materials and teachers. With less money to hire teachers, the class sizes would get larger and students would not get the individual attention needed to succeed academically. Additionally, if school started later then it would also end later. Ted Velkoff says, “Many students and families fear that later end times will result in reduced opportunities to participate in after school activities and athletics, hold jobs and care for younger siblings (Velkoff).” He is asserting that later start times would make it difficult for students to do anything outside of school. Similarly, Brian Stack, a principle in New Hampshire, is also in the middle of debates over start times at his school. He reports that start times would not only take away after school activities, but also from school attendance. The students that attend his school must travel up to two hours away to play sports with other schools in their bracket. If school got out later, then the athletes would be missing more classes to get to the sporting events in time (Stack). Later high school start times would result in the loss of time in the classroom and less time for after school

activities.
Furthermore, some believe that school start times is not the biggest cause of teen sleep deprivation. David J. Maume, a Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, said “social relational factors outperform developmental factors in determining youths' sleep patterns, particularly pointing to the importance of parental, peer and school ties in promoting healthy sleep behaviors (Quoted in Velkoff)." Maume has asserted that teens relationships with their family and friends has a bigger impact on the quality and amount of sleep they get. Those that oppose later start times claim that it would cost too much, reduce time in class and after school activities, and not solve the problem of teenagers sleep deprivation. While a few believe that schools should not start later, countless others contend that it would be a positive change for students and the community.
Scientists are doing studies to scientifically prove that later start times would bring students grades up, increase their health, and keep them safer. Finely Edwards is a visiting assistant economics professor at Colby College. He wanted to conduct a study to see if the claims of later start times improving school performance had grounding in science. The location decided for the study was Wake County, North Carolina because start times differed from school to school and in the same schools from year to year. Edwards choose students that were similar and attended similar schools with different start times and compared their reading and math scores on standardized tests. To avoid unrecognizable variables between schools, Edwards also reviewed the reading and math schools of students at the same school that changed the start time from one year to the next. In the first test, the schools that started an hour later had higher test scores by 3 percentile. When the same school changed start times to an hour later reading scores went up 1.5 percentile points and math went up 2.2 points. When just the students that stayed at the school when the change happened were compared, the results found were a 1.8 and 1.0 percentile point increase in math and reading respectively. Edwards said,
These estimated effects of changes in start times are large enough to be substantively important. For example, the effect of a one-hour later start time on math scores is roughly 14 percent of the black-white test-score gap, 40 percent of the gap between those eligible and those not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and 85 percent of the gain associated with an additional year of parents' education (Edwards).
Changing start times would do the most good for the students that struggle because of their circumstances. The reason start times would help teenagers is because as they become adolescents, melatonin (a hormone that causes sleepiness) is released later into the night, making it difficult to fall asleep earlier. Consequently, changing start times should make a bigger difference as children get older. When Edwards compared the change in test scores categorized by age he found that 14 year olds had a 3.7 percentile increase and 11 year olds only had a 1.2 percentile increase (Edwards). This result supports that as more students enter puberty they can’t get to sleep as early and later start times help them more. Along with improved test scores, later start times would also keep teenagers safer.
Researchers in Korea did a study of the relationship between bicycles accidents and sleep deprivation. They began by surveying Korean teenagers about their sleep habits and the amount of exercise they usually get daily. They were also asked about the bicycle accidents and slipping accidents they have had in the past 12 months. The results showed that teenagers who got less sleep reported more bicycle and falling accidents (Kim). Sleep deprivation causes accidents that can result in injuries. Starting school later would make it possible for teenagers to get more sleep and be safer. More sleep would improve health as well as safety.
Xue Ming, a professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, conducted a survey of 1,941 students on their sleep habits, school start times, and school performance. Students were asked questions about their grades and symptoms of sleep disorders. The surveys were sorted and the answers to questions were put into groups. The study showed that teenagers go to bed and get up at different times on the weekends than during the school week and also get more sleep. After studying all the data Xue Ming collected, she found that many students that don’t get enough sleep during the week have sleep health problems. She also found that when school starts later it increases health and academic performance (Ming). While later start times would help teenagers health, others still have doubts about the idea.
Some oppose changing start times but the problems they present can be solved. Ted Volkoff says it would take money away from the classroom to get new buses for a later start times (Velkoff). However, new buses wouldn’t be as expensive as other methods for improving test scores. Reports show it would cost roughly $150 per student to run the buses for an earlier start time. In contrast, increasing test scores of 4 percentile points by having smaller classes, costs $2,151 per student (Edwards). Despite what some believe changing school start times would in reality save a lot of money. Another concern is loss of time to participate in after school activities. Many schools that have changed start times have not had any problems with their sports departments. Practices and games can be rescheduled to compensate, and lights can be installed so athletes can play later. At many schools, more students played sports and their teams did better after the change. Getting more sleep increases endurance and coordination ("Eight Major Obstacles to Delaying School Start Times"). At first look, it would seem that later start and thus end times would hurt after school sports but it actually improves them. Some claim later start times would cause problems, but it would do the opposite.
Many assert that later start times would cost too much money and negatively impact students participation in after school activities. However, school start times would increase test scores, make teenagers safer, and improve their help. In conclusion, if administrators want their students to do better, then they should start school later.