Among adolescents and teenagers lack of sleep has become an epidemic. Teenagers believe that sleep is expendable when, in reality, it is extremely important for teens to receive sufficient sleep. Alexandra Robbins argues in her book, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, that teenagers are willing to sacrifice sleep for success and that this way of thinking is harmful to adolescent development. It is because of this way of thinking and the negative effect it has, that the start time of high schools should be pushed back. Through evidence provided by Robbins and an outside source, it can be asserted that the start time of high schools should be pushed back. Alexandra Robbins, in her book The Overachievers, states that …show more content…
teenagers believe that, in order to have success, sleep can be sacrificed. This mindset is unhealthy because it leads teenagers to believe that sleep is not important, even though it is. The reason that teenagers believe this concept is because schools unintentionally facilitate this mindset by having activities that go late, occasionally assigning copious amounts of homework, and having start times as early as 7:00. The culmination of these three factors lead teenagers to need to stay up late in order to complete all of their work and wake up early to get to school. This leads to insufficient amounts of sleep. Teenagers feel that they must stay up late to have success in their academic and extracurricular careers. Robbins also states that lack of sleep can have a negative effect on a student’s academic performance. This means that, while teenagers think that not sleeping will positively affect their school performance because it will give them more time to study, but, in reality, it will have an opposite effect. Teenagers need sleep to reach their full potential and to live healthy lives. From a biological perspective, it can also be argued that the start of schools should be pushed back.
In Dr. Michael Breus’ blog post, “Teens Need More Sleep Than You Think,” he states that teenagers are “wolves” or the chronotype that centers around going to sleep late. A chronotype is the time a person’s internal clock is set to at a given time in their life. Teenagers are a part of the chronotype that goes to bed later and wakes up later. Teenagers naturally go to bed at around 11:00 pm and need between eight and ten hours of sleep every night because of their chronotype. This means that going to school as early as 7:00, and waking up at 5:30, could lead to getting up to two and a half fewer hours of sleep than needed. This can have many harmful side effects. Also, it is simply hard to accomplish simple tasks early in the morning for both sleep deprived people, but also the wolf chronotype. Tasks that can be harder earlier in the morning can be as simple as speaking to other people or getting dressed, not to mention doing school work or driving. In fact, according to Dr. Robert Daniel Vorona from the Eastern Virginia Medical School, starting highs schools earlier can lead to an increase in driving related accidents. Dr. Vorona analyzed two cities, Chesterfield, Virginia, which had a 7:20 am start time, and Henrico County, which had an 8:45 am start time. He found that for every 1,000 drivers with licenses from the ages of 16 to 18 in Chesterfield there were 49 …show more content…
crashes as compared to only 38 in Henrico. This means that pushing back the start time of school may not only be an issue of health, but also an issue of safety. For that reason, the start time of schools should be pushed back to a later time. While all of this is true, some may argue that pushing back the start time of schools would not actually change the amount of sleep that students get due to after school activities.
If the start time of schools is pushed back, then the end time of school would likely be pushed back in order to make up for lost class time. If the end time of school is pushed back, then after school activities would need to be pushed back as well, leaving teenagers getting to their homes later in the evening which would to lead them going to sleep later. This argument undeniably valid, and there is no easy way around it. In order to not lose academic time, a compromise must be implemented. The start times of schools must be pushed back in order to allow teens to live healthy lifestyles, but the end time of schools does not have to be. Instead of pushing the whole day back an hour or two to compensate for losing the first hour or two, just push the start time back. This may seem counterintuitive because it would lead to schools losing class time. To make up for the lost time, schools should extend their year. Schools should add on an extra week or so, depending on how much school time was lost to the later start time, so that no class time would actually be lost. This compromise allows for better mental health of students as well as increased safety on the roads. It also allows teenagers to participate in all of their extracurricular activities while still getting all of their
schoolwork done and getting a full nights’ sleep. The start time of high schools must be pushed back to facilitate healthy lifestyles for teenagers. To accommodate for the busy lives of ambitious teenagers, the end time of school cannot be pushed back. That is why, in addition to pushing back the start time of schools, the school year should be extended by a couple of weeks. Sleep is imperative for the growing minds of adolescents. High school students need the start time of school to be later than it currently is because they need more sleep than they are currently getting. From a mental health, safety, and biological standpoint schools should start later in the morning. Teenagers are the future of the world, and it is important to promote their mental health. Teenagers need more sleep so that they can live up to their full potential in life and become the best future they can.
It is true that sleep deprivation is a widespread issue, generally resulting from early start times. It is also a serious one; according to a study by Harvard Medical School, sleep deprivation can lead to issues such as obesity, heart disease, difficulty learning, and can genuinely shorten a person’s lifespan. As Robbins explains, teenagers have a different internal sleep clock than other age groups. It is most healthy for students in high school to go to bed around 11 and wake up around 9. Since school often begins as early as 7, students are told they simply need to go to bed early, around 8 or 9 PM. This contention does not take into account the fact that humans are biologically not wired this way, and it's virtually impossible for most teens to fall asleep this early. It also doesn't take into account that with clubs, sports, church, volunteering, other extracurriculars and hours of homework, students often struggle to start their homework before their suggested “bedtime”. It is contended that students can control their own schedules so that they can get more sleep. However, pressure from parents and peers to get into a “good” college can cloud students’ perceptions of what is right for them, making them choose to overwork themselves in order to build impressive resumes. I myself can identify with this phenomenon. During the weekdays alone, I volunteer two nights a
There is multiple facts and reasons to have later start times help students get through the school day. BY helping students get better grades, test scores, and overall better. And teens these days aren't getting the sleep they need to wake up early and go to school. SO that is why school should have later start times. IF schools started later we wouldn't have all these tired and groggy students coming to school we would have students that are refreshed and ready to learn. We will have students that have good grades. We will have students who have better test scores. And we will have students with overall better performance.I what you right now pick up your phone and call your district and say we want later start
According to the National Sleep Foundation, biological sleep patterns change throughout the stages of adolescence. ¨Biological sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence-meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00pm.¨ (¨Teens and Sleep¨). Messing with these sleep cycles in the long run and lead to sleep disorders. Research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests teenagers 13-18 years old should regularly sleep 8-10 hours each night for a healthy sleep. The teens who do not get a good amount of sleep are more likely to suffer from mental conditions, smoking, illicit drugs, and alcohol use. ¨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.¨ (¨Schools Start Too Early¨). On an NBC news story, Hilton Head Island High School moved its start time and benefits were noticeable. Students had higher test score averages and grades improved throughout the school.A study done in 2008 published in the journal of clinical sleep, found car accident rates fell by 16.5% when students were more aware on the road, not having to wake up before 7 am.
“Hundreds of school districts around the country have pushed back school start times” States the writer for the Chicago Tribune, Kay Manning. In her essay, “Schools Awaken to Teens’ Sleep Needs,” implies students are impaired by their lack of sleep. Manning’s purpose is to convey the idea that it is a necessity for schools to look into starting school later due to the effects of sleep deficiency on children and their school work. She adopts an urgent tone in order to grab the support of her adult readers. Manning made this essay very effective through pathos, ethos, diction and syntax.
Jane E. Brody, a well-respected columnist for The New York Times’s Health section, wrote an interesting article, Hard Lesson in Sleep for Teenagers, in 2014 on the importance of sleep for teenagers, as well as the risks of deprivation of sleep. In the article Brody states, that a poll done in 2006, demonstrated that an average adolescent sleeps less than 20 percent of what the recommended average of eight to nine hours of sleep. Brody then goes on to explain that, while interviewing Dr. Judith A Owens, adolescents who drive while sleep deprived are just as dangerous as adolescents who drive drunk. Brody then explains the advantages to not starting school too early. One advantage she discussed, from a study done by Kyla Wahlstorm, supports the idea of starting school later because of the increase in students’ grade point averages in
“High school, especially, has become a game of survivor, a hypercompetition that swirls around the precepts ‘Outwit, Outplay, Outlast’” (Robbins 390). The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids is a nonfiction book written by Alexandra Robbins who emphasizes in the negative effects of modern American education. Robbins uses numerous personal examples from a group of nine teenagers from Walt Whitman High School. The reason why she selected Whitman High School is not because it is know as one of the best public school, but because in mid 1990s, she was one of these students rushing through the same hallways. This was where she became an overachiever, and discovered it firsthand.
As a teenager goes throughout their high school career, the work becomes more demanding, and requires them to spend more time studying. While the student is trying to balance studying, work, and social activities, the amount of hours they spend sleeping becomes limited. Cari Gillen-O’Neel (et al.) reveals in “To Study or to Sleep? The Academic Costs of Extra Studying at the Expense of Sleep,” that sleep is commonly lost among teenagers so that they have additional study time. Only about nine percent of high school students
Teens are wired to be night owls and are still required to sleep at least a whole 9 hours to be able to function properly. Studies show that a school with later arrival times is 16.5% less likely to have a car crash than a school with earlier start times. Sleep is very important in order to reduce teen car crashes. If students don’t graduate from high school then who will teach them how go through life. Later school leads to higher graduation rates.
Leigh Ann Morgan states that “ delaying schools cause fewer mood changes in teens.” If we start school later there might be a chance of less behavioral issues with kids and their rude mouth but they will just go to bed later if they don't have to get up early states Bernard Tranford. “If they start school late it will affect teens natural sleep pattern because they will go to bed later”( Michigan Health). Affecting teen’s natural sleep patterns can be bad; also for them to be staying up very late is
Although getting enough sleep may not seem that big of a deal, medical research shows that teens who usually get too little sleep are more likely to struggle in school.” This evidence supports that if school started later students would get more sleep they need because the students that don’t get enough sleep are the students that struggle with their grades. The risk of car accidents would be reduced if schools started later in the morning. “Results show that the school day crash rate for teen drivers was much higher with early school start time. These teens were involved in more than 520 accidents a year.”
Don't you hate waking up early for school in the morning? Most high school students wake up before the sun rises just to become ready for school. Teenage brains do not begin to function that early considering many are tired from staying up late the previous night. The National Sleep Foundation reported that most teens do not retain enough shuteye, one study found that only 15% reported sleeping eight 1/2 hours on school nights. That fact was extremely true for me when I attended high school. I barely was able to wake up, get dressed, and be in school on time since I was so tired. In my opinion school days should start later, precisely in between 9- 10 o'clock. If the school day started later attendance would improve, students will be more prepared, and student's attitudes and grades may improve.
Critique of a Scientific Investigation The article “Adolescent Sleep, School Start Times, and Teen Motor Vehicle Crashes” is presented by Dr. Fred Danner and Dr. Barbara Phillips in the Journal of Clinical Sleep and Medicine to convince the reader that early school start times across the country are affecting the ability of high school students to function properly, specifically while driving. The argument is presented through a study conducted over a two-year period in a single school district. The first year of the study had early school start times of 7:30 and 8:00 AM and the second had the altered late start time of 8:30 and 9:00 AM. During these two years, middle and high school students were polled on their sleeping habits.
Ed Ehlinger of the University of Michigan's Boynton Health Service said in a statement. "There is a direct link between the two." I’m not alone when I say I’m tired. According to the Sleep Foundation, ¨About two-thirds of Americans say their sleep needs are not being met during the week.¨ If school were to start later, kids might do better in school and not be tired during the school day. No Sleepless Nights (an advocacy group) recommends that everybody try to get into a schedule, waking up and going to bed at relatively constant times every day of the week. On school days, I go to bed late and wake up early, and on weekends its quite the opposite, as I try to make up for lost sleep. This habit is unhealthy. If school started later, I could get into a healthy sleep schedule and not have to recover from under-slept nights. According to The National Sleep Foundation it is natural for teens to be most alert around 11 pm and then need to sleep in in the morning. ¨This shift in teens' circadian rhythm causes them to naturally feel alert later at night, making it difficult for them to fall asleep before 11:00 pm. Since most teens have early school start times along with other commitments, this sleep phase delay
If school starts later than 8:30A.M it can keep you from falling asleep in class and when you are very tired then it makes it harder to remember what you have learned in the past. Being tired when driving is the same thing as drinking and driving, it has an effect on your judgement and it changes the way you drive,you could also end up falling asleep behind the wheel and that could cause many accidents. Being tired also makes it hard for you to say “no” and that could cause you to something bad and something that you would regret,it could be something that you're too young to be doing and and could cause a problem to your health. You can find where I got this information from
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.