Should School Start Later?

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BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! “Man, is it really 5:30 already?” It’s Monday morning, and you’re having trouble getting up, you’re not the only one. Waking up in the morning for school is one of the hardest things to do, especially when you feel like you haven’t slept in a week. Why can’t students just go to bed earlier, then they’ll have their 8 hours of sleep. Studies have shown “that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 A.m.” (Nancy Kalish). Students average sleep time isn’t determined by when they decide to go to sleep and wake up. It’s determined by when their body produces melatonin at night and when they must be up for school in the morning. So, would it be beneficial for students if school was to start later? Yes, with the adequate amount of sleep students will perform better, and will be less likely to have health issues.

Anything is possible with the right amount of sleep, but why won’t schools change the first bell? Well, that’s because students performance is pushed aside for more important issues such as “the cost of additional bus service, the difficulty of adjusting after-school activity schedules and the inconvenience to teachers and parents” (Nancy Kalish). The Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota, conducted a research experiment over a 6 year period. They kept track of the students’ performance in 7 different High Schools. They changed the time school started from 7:40 to 8:30. They watched the students’ performance 3 years before the change and 3 years after....

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... concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently. Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in “consolidating” memories in the mind. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day.” (WebMD). I believe that if students were to know the effects of school starting so early they would take more action to get school to start later.

In the final analysis, sleep deprivation not only has a negative effect on students’ performance at school, but it can also prevent students from showing up at all. Also, it can have negative effects on the children’s health which can make them stay out of school even more due to illness and even leave permanent damage to the children’s health. With this being said, do you believe that school should start later?

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