Sleep is an important thing for people to do. Sleep is that golden thing that ties health and our bodies together. If you do not get enough sleep it can cause hallucinations, depression, paranoia, and impulsive behaviors. That is only a small list of things that lack of sleep can cause. Most students have a hard time with sleep when they have to wake up early from school and stay up late to finish homework. Sleep is vital to your well-being, as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage stress of being a teen. This essay will be going over the cons of starting school early in the morning.
Teens have a tendency to go to sleep later, yet many high schools start the
…show more content…
Schools and communities can play a role, too. In 1996, the Edina Public School District in Minnesota became the first school system in the state to change school start times to accommodate the sleep needs of teens. “Academic performance is about more than class size and dollars spent per pupil,” said Superintendent Kenneth Dragseth in a statement at the time. “We do everything we can to create an optimal learning environment for our students. If adjusting school starting times improves their performance, we’re willing to make the changes necessary to do that.”
If teens need 8 to 10 hours of sleep to do their best and naturally go to sleep around 11:00 pm, one way to get more sleep is to start school later. Teens' natural sleep cycle puts them in conflict with school start times. Most high school students need an alarm clock or a parent to wake them on school days. They are like zombies getting ready for school and find it hard to be alert and pay attention in class. Because they are sleep deprived, they are sleepy all day and cannot do their best. Schools that have set later bell times find that students do not go to bed later, but get one hour more of sleep per school night, which means five hours more per
On average, high school students receive about 3.5 hours of homework each night and elementary school students are getting about three times the amount that is recommended, which is ten minutes per grade, so 10 minutes for 1st grade and 50 minutes for 5th grade. Homework takes time to do after school and extracurriculars. If a student goes to school at 9:00 and gets out at 4:00, then goes to an after-school activity from 4:00 to 6:00, they will come home and have dinner from about 6:30 to 7:15, which means that they will probably start homework at around 7:30. This means that high school student would be up until about 11:00 finishing their homework, that’s without factoring in how much time the students will waste. 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 schools do start later.
cases, this cycle can lead to depression and even suicide.” Therefore, it is crucial that schools prioritize the well-being of their students and adjust their schedules accordingly. The article titled "Despite Research on Teens' Sleep, Change to School Start Times Difficult" states that some argue against later school start times, claiming that "students will have less time later in the day to spend with their families if school starts later" (Blad). While this may seem like a valid concern, it is not always the case.
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.
In the two articles, “High Schools Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens” by Michelle Trudeau and “High Schools Will Keep Starting Too Early. Here’s why” by Dan Weissman. Each author uses different evidence to support his or her claim about school starting times. According to “High School Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens”, most teenagers are not getting the proper rest at night and is causing a severe consequence to their everyday experiences. Students need sleep because it can prevent a child from falling asleep in class and helping the child focus. “students reported less depression when there was a later starting time.”
Kids and teen everywhere are rushed, stressed, and not doing as well in school because they aren't getting the right amount of sleep. About 40% of american high schools start classes before 8:00 am and more than 20% of middle schools start at 7:45 am or earlier. School start times should be later because teens need sleep and it improves their overall academic grades.
Lack of sleep of teens is not caused by choice. Many teens do not choose to stay up late at night because they are out or having fun. The body has circadian rhythms. “These rhythms are generated internally and develop without any social or environmental cues. Adolescents experience a natural circadian phase delay and, therefore, tend to stay up later and sleep in later than in preadolescents” (Final Report Summary, 2001). The opening and closing schedules of schools are not based on these rhythms but are based on the business world and what is best for it. “School schedules should be adapted to the unique needs of different sub-populations of pupils. The administrator must not bear the sole responsibility for planning class schedules” (...
“Sleep deprivation is epidemic among adolescents, with potentially serious impacts on mental and physical health, safety, and learning. Most teenagers undergo a biological shift to a later sleep-wake up cycle, which can make early school start times particularly challenging.” says Boergers.
Teens are recommended to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night to be able to function to the best of their ability. A study found that only 15% of teens receive 8.5 hours on school night. According to the CDC, “Five out of six middle and high schools in the United States start the school day too early.” Most high schools start before 8:30 A.M. High schools starting too early in the morning can cause high school students to not get their necessary amount of sleep. Lack of sleep can cause harmful health effects. Not getting enough sleep can cause behavior effects such as aggressiveness and impulsivity. Not getting enough sleep can also cause you to overeat, which can lead to unhealthy weight gain. Changing the start time of high schools can assure high school students with their appropriate amount of
"I know many students that come in and are just struggling to stay awake," she said. "Many of my friends are falling asleep in class"(Associated Press). Seattle is moving start times for school so teens can get more sleep.Based on the article titled, “More zzz’s can lead to more A’s: Seattle Schools Move Start Time for Teens”, one believes that Beaumont High School should change the start time to begin class later due to sleep deprivation, which supplies more energy throughout the day for students. Also other schools are starting other times too but this will also affect teens that have sports or after school activities. “The movement still has a long way to go: There are more than 24,000 U.S. high schools”(Associated Press).
First of all, some teens simply don’t get enough sleep. People argue they should just go to sleep earlier, but it’s not that easy. Teens and children have a tendency to go to sleep late and wake up late. They have a life to live outside of school should open at at least ten o’clock.
In Why Schools Should Start Later for Teens (2016), a TED talk by Wendy Troxel, a knowledgeable clinical psychologist, argues that high schools should start later because too many adolescents are sleep-deprived. Troxel makes the case that teen’s biological clocks are delayed and don’t start producing melatonin till 11 pm, making the wake time of 6 am seem barbaric. In order to make a change, Wendy suggests that middle and high schools should not start any earlier than 8:30 a.m. Troxel’s goal is to inform parents and schools of the benefits sleep has on their adolescents, as a mother herself Wendy has first-hand experience of how damaging a lack of sleep can be for teens. Similarly, many other sleep psychologists and experts stress the same
School times also complicate the issue of getting enough sleep. For example, most high schools in the United States begin at 7:30 am. Middle and high schools should start later because doing so will grant teens more sleep and will make them healthier children, students will get
Elementary, middle, and high school would get out at different times. Also teenagers, kids or children sleep during class, because they stayed up to late on the internet or either watching tv. Most teens need 8 ½ - 9 hours of sleep each night,to be awake and completely active (kids Health). Early start times in some schools also might play a role in lost sleep. Teens who fall asleep after midnight may still have to get up early for school, meaning that they might squeeze in only 6 or 7 hours of sleep a night (kids
When children make the transition from primary school to middle school or high school, it affects them a lot when the changing of their own sleep cycle affects the way they actually learn. Dr. Judith Owens, who is the director of the Sleep Medicine Clinic at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., says "adolescents are programmed to fall asleep later,” (2013). She wants to change school start times to later because "we are asking [teens] to be awake and alert at the time in their 24-hour clock when their alertness level is at its very lowest,” (2013). She also says that most teens can’t usually fall asleep until 11 p.m. Sleep expert Amy Wolfson of College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., says that children should try to get eight and a half to nine and a half hours of sleep a night. Waking up at six a.m. leads to bad sleep patterns creating sleep deprivation.
“They say the early bird catches the worm, but for teens in high school it would be better to catch some shut eye” says Kennedy is his article “Too Early to Rise.” School should start at a later time for the reason that students are not getting enough sleep to properly function in school. In this paper you will see the effects of not getting enough sleep has on students and what it does to their performance.