The average American public high school student starts school between seven-thirty and eight in the morning, which means the student wakes up around six to six-thirty. After a seven hour school day students have jobs, clubs, sports, homework, and other extracurricular activities to attend to. High school students are missing out on the sleep they need because of late nights and early mornings. Students who participate in extracurricular activities, obtain jobs, or are overloaded with homework have a higher risk of health problems due to the amount of sleep they are losing.
In order to produce higher academic success and a more healthy educational environment, high schools should start later in the morning to let students be more alert and prepared. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later to allow students the opportunity to get the recommended amount of sleep on school nights, about 8.5-9.5 hours.
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Getting enough sleep is essential for people of all ages, but especially for high school students. The majority of schools — about 82 percent, on average — started earlier than 8:30 a.m. High school students are busy with hours of school, jobs, sports, homework, clubs, and other extracurricular activities. If school starts at seven-thirty a.m., most students are out the door between seven and seven-ten to get to school on time in all the traffic.
I would try to leave for school before seven-ten and would still be late even though I lived less than ten minutes away. Having to leave around seven means students have to wake up anywhere from six to six-thirty depending on how long it takes them to get ready. Students have to wake up even earlier if they want to make and eat a nutritious breakfast. When school starts early students are likely to skip out on breakfast.
Some early risers wake up extra early and can take time to get ready and to make and eat a nutritious breakfast. Another solution to not getting a nutritious breakfast is preparing it the night before or grabbing something right before walking out the door and eating on the way to school. There are also school breakfast programs that provide breakfast for students in the morning.
Sending sleep-deprived students to school is not productive. For many people, days just don’t seem long enough. In order to cram everything into one 24-hour period, something has to give. Judging by many surveys of Americans, it’s sleep. If students could sleep in they would be more alert during school. Later high school start times means students have the freedom to get up at a decent time and not have to rush to get ready or eat breakfast.
With jobs, homework and extracurricular activities, high school students stay up late at night to try to get all their stuff done before they go to sleep. For example, a student with a job goes straight to work after school and works a five-hour shift, but still has to eat dinner and finish all their homework before falling asleep. Having a later start time for high school means that those students who stay up late get to catch up on their sleep.
On the other hand, not every student has a job or does sports outside of school. There are some students that strictly go to school and go straight home and have plenty of time for homework. Even though the recommended amount of sleep is anywhere from seven to eight hours, some students can function properly and pay attention with less than the recommended amount because it works for their body. When people wake up without the recommended amount of sleep or wake up too early are not fully awake. Sleepy students don’t learn or perform as well as their well-rested peers. Students who do not get enough sleep have a hard time paying attention and staying awake in class. Those students that might drift off with a quick nap on their desk are usually considered lazy, but their teachers and peers do not know how busy they are at home after school.
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If schools started later and high school students had a chance to get the correct amount of sleep then there would be fewer students falling asleep in class. During adolescence, the body goes through many changes. These include a shift in sleep needs. When students are not falling asleep in classes they pay more attention and their grades can improve. For some students, their classes are too important to fall asleep in the middle of class and miss crucial information. Those students that are in dual credit (DC) and advanced placement (AP) classes cannot afford to miss any information if they want to get the college credit hours during high school.
Pushing back the start time of school means that the end time would also have to be pushed back. This could interfere with jobs or after school activities and give students less time in the afternoon and night to get all their stuff done before falling asleep. Some high schoolers also have the responsibility of picking up a younger sibling or family member from their middle school or elementary school. If schools push back the start time of high school there is a good chance that high school would start at the same exact time as the elementary school or middle school, causing problems for drop off and pick up times. Another outside influence is parent and student schedule conflicts. Having school start early makes it easier for parents to drop off their kids at school and make it to work on time. Even though school starting early makes it easier on the parent, the school bus system, public transportation, personal cars, and carpooling can help students get to school on their own without a parent’s help.
Starting school too early forces teens to lose a large chunk of what’s known as REM — or rapid eye movement — sleep. This type of sleep helps teens (and everyone else) control their moods. But that’s not the only problem. Too little sleep also has been linked with an increased risk of obesity, depression, drug use and other problems.
Students are not getting enough sleep due to high school starting too early. Too little sleep has become so common among teens that the CDC calls it an epidemic, a widespread public-health problem. Students overloaded with homework, sports, clubs and other extracurricular are missing out on sleep. There are many benefits from pushing back the start time of high school including, catching up on sleep, paying more attention in class and health benefits.