Why School Should Start Later Essay

Teenagers’ internal clocks operate differently than the internal clocks of every other age group. Puberty delays the production of the sleeping hormone, melatonin, until later at night, making it difficult for adolescents to fall asleep before 11 P.M. The Centers for Disease Control recommends 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep, and yet two-thirds of students report getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night. Teens naturally go to bed late, and are forced to wake up earlier than they should because school starts too early. Choosing school over sleep should not be a decision anyone has to make. Waking up before 8 A.M. is naturally and physically harder for teenagers to do, yet 75% of public high schools and middle schools in over forty states start

Scientists say that starting school just half an hour later would have beneficial effects in the long run, without affecting extracurricular activities immensely. Most importantly, your education comes before your outside activities. You don’t play a sport, and go to school on the side. You aren’t in school just to join different clubs. You are a student before you are anything extracurricular. With that said it is still completely possible to start school at a healthy time and still have the amount needed for after school activities. However, that compromise between school, health, and extracurricular cannot be obtained until people realize there needs to be a change and are committed to making that change. Right now, people don’t know the science and statistics behind the start time of school. People don’t take sleep deprivation seriously and don’t consider it to be a public health issue. It is a social norm to have school start early, and people like to stick to the status quo. As Terra Ziporyn Snider said “We have to convince school systems this has to happen for the health of kids. It’s not a negotiable school budget item—it’s an absolute