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Effects of lack of sleep on students in school
Effect of not getting enough sleep
Effect of not getting enough sleep
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A majority of high school students across the United States do not receive a sufficient amount of sleep. A recent CDC report found that across forty states more than 75 percent of public schools started earlier than 8:30 am. Students often do not acquire the recommended eight to ten hours of sleep due to a natural and biological tendency for teenagers to fall asleep at later times. Most school systems fail to recognize the destructive effects of such lack of sleep and put in a learning schedule in direct opposition to the mental and physical needs of the student body. Without a big shift of nationwide of school start times and the crucial support of the public in order to create a necessary change, high school students will continue to be at a high risk of depression, fatigue, and stress, all aspects of which the nation’s education system and leads to a societal mentality. …show more content…
The early school day start enforced by the greater part of high schools in the United States is harmful to the education and health of students. It is proven with scientific data, as it limits students ability to retain and process information, damages biological sleep cycles, leads to increased likelihood for chronic stress and depression. It also causes health risks like diabetes. Since the teacher pile on the homework and expect students to get it done the next day before. With students trying to be responsible and getting their homework done, they do not get enough sleep. If a teenage or anyone that goes four days without REM sleep they will start to desire to eat more junk food rather than more nutritious. This will cause them to get type two diabetes. There was an experiment done by Go to
cases, this cycle can lead to depression and even suicide.” Therefore, it is crucial that schools prioritize the well-being of their students and adjust their schedules accordingly. The article titled "Despite Research on Teens' Sleep, Change to School Start Times Difficult" states that some argue against later school start times, claiming that "students will have less time later in the day to spend with their families if school starts later" (Blad). While this may seem like a valid concern, it is not always the case.
How many times has this happened to you; it’s six thirty on a Tuesday morning, your alarm has already gone off twice, your still laying in bed and your bus comes in twenty minutes. This is an everyday occurrence at my house. It is a proven statistic that the average high school student does not get enough sleep. While some experts like Dr. Lee Yanku say “It is not the schools starting time that is the problem as to why students don’t get enough sleep, it is because of facebook, myspace and cell phones” The truth behind it is that we can’t budget sports, homework and extracurricular activities into one day and still get nine hours of sleep. This is hurting student’s academic averages and needs to change. Changing the school time will help boost academic averages among students, and isn’t th...
In the two articles, “High Schools Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens” by Michelle Trudeau and “High Schools Will Keep Starting Too Early. Here’s why” by Dan Weissman. Each author uses different evidence to support his or her claim about school starting times. According to “High School Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens”, most teenagers are not getting the proper rest at night and is causing a severe consequence to their everyday experiences. Students need sleep because it can prevent a child from falling asleep in class and helping the child focus. “students reported less depression when there was a later starting time.”
Throughout the United States, students tend to complain about how early school starts in the morning. A few schools in the U.S. are beginning to move their start times later in the morning. However, not everyone is on the same side of these decisions. Some say that later school start times will have benefits on student performance and student health. Others say that later school start times would have negative affects on what time school will end and the schedules of the community. What times schools start is a very controversial topic.
Sleep deprivation is very common in adolescents and can contribute to many different problems that can be avoided with simple changes in daily sleep routines. According to the article, “young and sleep deprived” by Karen Weintraub many psychologists want to persuade middle schools and high schools to push back start times to increase safety and performance in their students’ everyday lives. They claim that the reason why teenagers are drowsy and experience impaired attention span in class is because of sleep deprivation. Psychologists claim this because students around the United States are waking up before their circadian rhythms or internal clocks tell them to awake. Therefore, if students awake before their circadian
Researchers have proven that teenager’s brains don’t start working until ten in the morning, also that an average teenager is supposed to get eight to nine hours of sleep each night. These are a few reasons that school starting times are negatively affecting students learning abilities at school. I believe that schools should have later starting times. An average teenager is supposed to get eight to nine hours of sleep each night, however in reality most teens only get about seven hours. A lack of sleep is causing students to do worse on homework and tests. Our school starts at seven twenty-five, if it started two hours later, then students would be getting the exact amount of sleep that they need each night. A study shows that the brain doesn’t
Among adolescents and teenagers lack of sleep has become an epidemic. Teenagers believe that sleep is expendable when, in reality, it is extremely important for teens to receive sufficient sleep. Alexandra Robbins argues in her book, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids, that teenagers are willing to sacrifice sleep for success and that this way of thinking is harmful to adolescent development. It is because of this way of thinking and the negative effect it has, that the start time of high schools should be pushed back. Through evidence provided by Robbins and an outside source, it can be asserted that the start time of high schools should be pushed back.
“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 up cycle, which can make early school start times particularly challenging.” says Boergers.
Lack of sleep of teens is not caused by choice. Many teens do not choose to stay up late at night because they are out or having fun. The body has circadian rhythms. “These rhythms are generated internally and develop without any social or environmental cues. Adolescents experience a natural circadian phase delay and, therefore, tend to stay up later and sleep in later than in preadolescents” (Final Report Summary, 2001). The opening and closing schedules of schools are not based on these rhythms but are based on the business world and what is best for it. “School schedules should be adapted to the unique needs of different sub-populations of pupils. The administrator must not bear the sole responsibility for planning class schedules” (...
An early school start time for teens causes more than just an attitude problem; waking up too early causes mental illnesses, obesity, hazardousness, tardiness, absence, and declining grades. The argument between early and late school start times is only important because teens need more sleep, more sleep is the answer. Teenagers across the U.S. are affected by high school start times daily, often being too tired or aggravated to show up and participate in classroom activities. Many people would like to think it's our fault that we don't go to sleep early enough and finish our homework late, but it is much more than what it looks like. Teens have complicated body clocks, much more different than adults or children, but it is not respected.
A Study On the Effects of Early School Starting Times “They say the early bird catches the worm, but for teens in high school it would be better to catch some shut eye” says Kennedy in his article “Too Early to Rise.” School should start at a later time for the reason that students are not getting enough sleep to properly function in school. In this paper you will see the effects that not getting enough sleep has on students and what it does to their performance. Groups like the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) are urging schools to move back the start time of schools and let students sleep in longer. The CDC has found that two out of every three high school students fail to get sufficient sleep (8.5 to 9.5 hours a night).
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.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, "Teens need about 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night to function best" ("Teens and Sleep"). Phillips and Danner's research shows that not one grade level surveyed averaged more than 7.8 hours of sleep when having early school start times. This knowledge allows the reader to view later school start times with a positive outlook. By using purely informative information backed up by research, the authors allow the article to gain credibility while proving to the reader that the information being presented is accurate. As a result, the audience is more inclined to believe the argument being presented. In addition, this fact-based information adds to the overall effectiveness of the
Hitting their obnoxious alarm clocks, millions of high school students in the United States wake up at 6:00 am for school every day. Long before the sun rises, students rush through their morning rituals of washing, dressing, and eating. Aside from school, students often have sports, clubs, work, and social time. Once students return home, they begin their homework assignments that take several hours and cause them to sleep late. As a result, high school students who need a minimum of eight to nine hours of sleep barely receive seven. This shortage in sleep often causes several detrimental consequences. However, there is a simple solution to this dilemma. High school classes should start later in the day because the associated lack of sleep negatively affects behavior, academic success, and physical health.