Why School Should Start Later

Have you ever woken up and still felt unbelievably tired? Ever needed an extra hour or two of sleep? Scientists have proven that kids who sleep more can retain more information. More sleep could easily be achieved if we would delay school start times. Schools that have done this have shown higher test grades. Schools should have later start times because parents have trouble getting their children up, kids need a lot more sleep than they are getting, and there would be a lowered risk of illnesses.
Firstly, if schools started later, the struggle of getting up in the morning would become more manageable and possibly completely eliminated. In Liz Szabo’s article “Most teens start school too early”, she states “Many parents have asked schools

to start later, arguing that their teens have trouble waking up early enough to get to school by 7:30 a.m., let alone learn.” This proves that children waking up too early is a very serious problem. This problem is easily resolvable, we just need to change the current school start times to a more reasonable time.
Secondly, children are getting a fraction of the sleep a healthy teen would be typically need. In Sarah McKibben’s article ”Wake-up Call”, the National Sleep Foundation says, “Teens need eight and a half to nine and and a quarter hours of sleep each night”(7). The majority of students are not even getting seven hours of sleep per night. This proves that insufficient sleep is a prevalent issue. Why should precious tax dollars be spent on education if children are so tired that they don’t get the most out of their time there? Children could get the amount of sleep they need if schools changed starting times.
Lastly, sleep deprivation can cause very serious diseases. According to the article “Should Schools Start Later?”, which Justin O’Neal wrote, “...tired teens have an increased risk of depression, anxiety, obesity, and illness” (20). Childhood obesity is a huge problem in our country right now and this information shows that we could help with these pandemics if we changed school times. Changing school starting time and allowing for more sleep, would lead to a great decrease in the number of children that would develop these diseases.
Some people would argue that teens would just go to bed later. This is highly doubtful because circadian rhythm would match up more with school times , so their brain would tell them to go to bed at a time that would allow for plenty of sleep. Teachers would benefit if schools changed starting times as well because there would be fewer students with their heads down, and students would be more attentive. There would be less tardies because students would wake up refreshed and get moving faster. Additionally, there would be less absences because students who get more sleep are less likely to get sick.
Schools should have later start times because children need more sleep than they are currently getting, parents have a hard time waking their kids up, and children would be less likely to develop an illness. It is not productive to send tired children to school. If we would just implement one simple change in our school schedule, to delay start times, the benefits would be a domino effect of good health, alert students and happy teachers. Let kids wake up later, so everyone is happy!