Schools Should Start Later When Teenage Brains Are Ready to Learn
There’s a reason teenagers sleep in class, and this isn’t just the last lecture on polynomials. They are sleepy. And the reason they want to sleep is because school starts so damn early.
For years, people insisted on starting later in school for middle and high school students, who would drag their bodies back to their places every morning as early as 7 am; The American Academy of Pediatrics , the American Psychological Association , the National Sleep Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to name just a few groups. However, in most areas, school schedules are out of sync with the biology of adolescents.
Although most young children are inherently waking early, the sleep-wake cycle occurs during puberty, and most teens sleep best between 11:00 and 8:00 . So when a student needs to wake up at 6 a.m. (or earlier to catch the bus), it is a loss of two or more hours of hopeless sleep every day. As one study says , “Wake up at 7 am for older teens is equivalent to starting at 4:30 am for a teacher in their 50s.”
This, of course, can lead to problems associated with ineffective sleep , including depression, obesity, migraines, and a weakened immune system. Teens who don’t get enough sleep are also more likely to have car accidents and engage in risky behaviors such as smoking, alcohol and drug use.
The good news is that the situation is finally changing. Schools in 45 states are cutting start times to better meet health care requirements. The California bill debated in the state legislature, prohibits the middle and high school to learn before 8:30 am. The benefits will go beyond the individual level – a recent RAND study found that a nationwide 8:30 a.m. shift could make a difference. $ 83 billion into the US economy over a decade. Students can do better academically, healthier, and safer.
Countermeasures arise – some are concerned that late start times will leave little time for extracurricular activities, or that the shift will cause parents to be late for work, or that there will not be enough room for all the children to go straight to school, and therefore there must be chess start time. … But the Start School Later Advocacy Group can answer just about any question you can think of.
Parents should do their part too by limiting screen usage and helping their kids sleep better . If your school is not already on the program, here’s how you can start filing petitions.