American Education System Fails to Address Brain Complexity The American education system is flawed in recognizing the specific learning needs adolescents have due to the complexity of their brains. To both obtain and retain information, children and teens need a sufficient amount of sleep. With the existing early-arrival policies, it would seem most are not getting enough. Males and females (whether young or old) learn and comprehend information in different ways, based on specific variations in their brains, and these needs are not accommodated in the typical class room. Teenagers are not usually alert in the morning. Biologically, adolescents feel the need to sleep later, and for longer periods of time than adults. Teenagers likewise feel social pressures that affect their sleeping habits; many want to communicate with friends whenever possible and maintain a healthy social life. This being the case, the suggestion of going to bed earlier is not exactly plausible. The practical solution is to allow the youth to sleep later, so they can function during school hours. Most public s...
For some high school students, sleep is not considered a necessity – but rather, a luxury. Sports, extra-curricular activities, and Fine Arts programs play an important role in students’ lives and require a significant amount of commitment and dedication. Social life aside, some students have taken the additional endeavors of acquiring jobs, participating in volunteer activities, and taking extra Advanced Placement classes. With too many tasks to fulfill in a twenty-four hour day, high school students are forced to substitute for the most essential condition of all: sleep.
Teens spend most of their day at school but are unable to fulfill their learning opportunities because of little or no sleep.
All children need sleep and want sleep during the weekdays and that is very difficult. It has been noticed that older students and younger students, such as third graders and eleventh graders, sleep patterns are very different. In many places it is the same way that middle schools and high school start earlier than elementary schools. The problem is that adolescents stay up at least two and a half hours later than younger children do (Bergin 2). Older kids stay up for various reasons and younger children can fall asleep easier and earlier than high school students. Kids from elementary school all the way to high school tend to get up at relatively the same time but as stated before older kids go to sleep later than younger children. Ages 3-17 children tend to get up at the same time which is 7 a.m. (Bergin 1). The sleep patterns differ between high school students and elementary students but they are also very different between students and teachers.
One of the many arising problems of America’s students is they are becoming sleep deprived. The busy daily schedules of children and teens are not allowing them to get enough sleep. “Less sleep is unhealthy especially with the new research that as teenagers move through teenage years, they need increasing amounts of sleep. Nine hours per night is the necessary amount to avoid behaviors associated with sleep deprivation” (Final Report Summary, 2001). Among other things, sleep deprivation is causing students to sleep during class instead of being awake and aware. When the students are sleeping in class, they are not retaining information being taught to them. Researchers have now proven that the majority of adolescents retain more information later in the day. Contrary to this information, America’s school systems are programmed to begin early in the day, which according to the sleep rhythms of most teenagers, they should still be sleeping.
Were you aware that teens tend to have irregular sleeping patterns that can harm their body and the way it functions? When it comes to sleep, teens are inclined to stay up very late during the week and wake up very early in the morning. On the weekends, they seem to gravitate more towards waking up very late to catch up on the sleep that they missed earlier in the week. Now that you know what the causes of having irregular sleeping patterns can do to a teenager’s body, you will be able to see the positive and negative effects of what not having enough sleep can do to one’s self. These facts will be explored through the articles “Should Schools Start Later” by Justin O’Neill and “Why Schools Should Start Later in the Morning” by Emily Richmond.
Studies conducted over a nearly 30 year span have consistently shown only a small fraction of adolescents get the 9 or more hours of sleep they require to function at their best. While teenagers are notorious for causing their own sleep difficulties, sleep loss among adolescents is confined primarily to school nights. “Sleep deprivation is epidemic among adolescents, with potentially serious impacts on mental and physical health, safety, and learning. Most teenagers undergo a biological shift to a later sleep-wake cycle, which can make early school start times particularly challenging.” says
It’s seven thirty in the morning, the time that most American high schools begin class. Instead of being chipper and ready to learn, most teenagers, at this time of the morning, can barely remain awake. These puffy eyed pupils are by no means ready to learn. Sixty percent children under 18 reported being sleepy during the day, with another fifteen percent reporting that they had fallen asleep during the school day within the past year (National Sleep Foundation, Dozing). Though adolescents require a larger amount of sleep than younger children, they usually receive much less (Indiana University Center for Adolescent Studies). The amount of sleep a teenager receives affects him or her both physically and mentally. Sleep deprived teenagers are more likely to be irritable, be depressed, not perform up to their capabilities in school, and have a decreased ability to handle complex tasks (National Parent Information Network). Though teenage sleep deprivation is a big problem, some simple solutions such as rescheduling the school day to fit teenagers’ biological needs, setting consistent sleep schedules, and teaching children the importance of proper sleep habits can easily remedy this problem.
According to Impact of Delaying School Start Time on Adolescent Sleep, Mood, and Behavior ”Students reported significantly more satisfaction with sleep and experienced improved motivation. Daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and depressed mood were all reduced.” This quote is important because it shows how students moods were changed by allowing them to be able to sleep later. Students being able to sleep in decreases the chance of having depression and also decreases the rate of suicide. Therefore, having late start will impact the students in a positive
Adolescents all around the world stay up playing video games, playing on their phones, playing around with their friends, or cramming in an assignment that’s due the next day due to their procrastination. With all these contributing factors, sleep is the last thing on any teen’s mind. School work has a big effect on teens while trying to do it and do it right and get a good night’s sleep every night. The more and more sleep you get each night, the easier it is to get better grades in school, understand things better, and progress easier and faster. Lack of sleep can cause teens to not care thus making their effort poor on their work while their drive and motivation to learn is
From morning until night, teenagers have to work relentlessly. Schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and maintaining a social life are just some of the many stressors in the life of a teenager. From the sound of this, it would seem almost as if teenagers have no time to sleep. In fact, this is partially true. Studies conducted by the Center for Advancing Health have shown that only about eight percent of high schoolers in the United States get the required amount of sleep to be deemed healthy. This is an exceptionally low number for an entire nation. Not getting enough sleep on average can be extremely detrimental to the wellbeing of a student and for a generation as
One reason why high school should start later than elementary schools is that with such early start times, the average high school students do not get enough sleep and are considered sleep deprived. According to a survey completed by The National Sleep Foundation, only 20% of high school students sleep the optimal 9 hours on school nights and 60% of children under the age of 18 have complained that they are tired throughout the school day to their parents (“School Start”). Sleep depravity is very common among high school students. With disadvantaged sleep patterns, adolescents have decreased mental sharpness and ability to pay attention during school hours. Therefore, grades and test scores are lower than their potential. In fact, “a recent survey by the National Sleep Foundation showed that only 20 percent of teenagers report getting the optimal 9 hours of sleep o...
Every day in the United States, students find themselves lying in bed struggling to get out of bed and prepare himself for the school day. Teenagers have spent too much time the night before on social media or watching netflix. However, current research from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that biological and physiological factors play a major role in determining how teenagers’ brains simply are not designed to sleep more than a few hours each night, and as a result, teens are sleepy and have trouble focusing on school work in their early morning classes, and they exhibit behavior issues and reckless driving. This issue is not an easy matter to resolve without facing some difficulties, but every problem requires some sacrifices to become feasible. The solution is complicated, but for the sake of safety and success, schools should change start times so that
Adolescents today face a widespread chronic health problem called sleep deprivation. (“Backgrounder: Later School Start Times.”). First off, there are some benefits of starting school later. When starting school later in the day, it reduces the risks of stimulant and other substance abuse, and high-risk health behaviors especially during early unsupervised hours in the afternoon. (“What’s the Big Deal?”). Returning to later, healthier, safer, evidence-based school hours is a reform with the potential to improve the health, safety, and academic achievement of all students, immediately and often at low or even no cost. (“What’s the Big Deal?”). Schools in America should start later in the day to end sleep deprivation.
Fifty six percent of students report being tired throughout the school day, which can lead to missed information and confusion (Wysong). According to this statistic, over half the students in class are not going to achieve their maximum learning potential in school. In order to avoid this problem, a teenager's brain typically needs to sleep from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am (“High schools starting later to help sleepy teens”). However, most high schools require students to be in class as early as 7:15 or 7:30 am. As a result, many adolescents simply do not have the opportunity to get enough rest. Changing the traditional school time to start later in the day will benefit adolescent sleep cycles, promote learning, and prevent disease by regulating the body. Ideally,...
Universal education is one of the boasting points a developed country such as the United States can make. It is required by law for children to go to school until they are at least 16 years old. Since schooling is such an integral part of life, one would think that it would be constantly in repair, being improved so that society can improve. Some aspects of school life, however, have fallen behind. Specifically in high school, one such aspect is when the day is scheduled to start. There are have been major strides in the research of sleep, and many of them find that the common first bell for adolescents negatively coincides with their sleep schedule. The traditional time for high schools to start is based off of outdated factors. Scientific evidence on adolescents’ sleep needs and studies conducted on the results after changes were made show that the major benefits to delaying the beginning of school a half-hour to an hour later outweigh possible obstacles.