Ever gone to school drowsy and/or tired before? So have many other students in the United States and in many other countries. Even though the lack of sleep could be possibly solved by better parental control, schools should start later in the morning because teens need, on average, about 9 hours of sleep, students’ academic performances would improve, and teen car crash rates would drop a significant rate due to better concentration. There are many other additional health benefits attached to arriving at school at a later time, including but not limited to: less depressive feelings, irritability, and sleep deprivation in general. Sleep deprivation can cause obesity, stroke, heart attack, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), mental impairment, and many other serious health problems. All of these health and physical problems can possibly be avoided if schools consider opening later in the morning.
When a child enters puberty, not only is their body physically changing, but also their biological makeup is changing as well. “Research shows that adolescents require at least as much sleep as they did as children, generally 8 1/2 to 9 1/4 hours each night” (Carskadon). Most teenagers do not receive the full 8 to 9 hours of sleep due to a common sleeping disorder. This disorder is called delayed sleep phase syndrome, or DSPS, which can be caused by the pressures of a school schedule conflicting with the changes in the body’s natural circadian rhythm which is commonly referred to as the body clock. This disorder is not only found in teenagers, but children as well, which can cause moderate to serious problems:
Children and adolescents with DSPS may experience depression and other psychiatric problems including behavioral problems as a resu...
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Waking up early at 6:00 A.M in the morning isn’t the funniest thing to do. The times on when school starts should be changed to a later time. Schools should change start times to later there is even factual evidence that this is true. In the article ‘The Teen Who Woke Up Her School’ by Jane Bianchi wrote about a teen named Jilly Dos Santos who put hard work into petitions and powerpoints to show how more sleep can better not only her but other people on school work and sports. People need more sleep to function and get through the day and to be more alert about things around them.Evidence from scientist and from teens show that people work better when they have more energy and got a good night's rest and when students don’t they sometimes start
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).
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
Although sizeable information exists for the concepts that early school start times are destructive to adolescents’ health and well-being along with delaying school start times results in real and constant benefits to students, the current debate among school districts in the United States regarding school systems later start times for middle and high schools continues to spark controversy.
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
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
In order to avoid sleep deprivation, maintaining a consistent sleep schedule is vital for teenagers. Compared to opposing age groups, teenagers are most easily affected by inconsistent sleep habits (National Sleep Foundation, Adapt). The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) reports that, “For the adolescent’s circadian clock to stay on track, it is essential that teens remain on schedule…(National Sleep Foundation, Adapt).” The NSF also recommends that teens only stay up one hour later on weekends than they would duri...
According to the National Sleep Foundation, biological sleep patterns change throughout the stages of adolescence. ¨Biological sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence-meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00pm.¨ (¨Teens and Sleep¨). Messing with these sleep cycles in the long run and lead to sleep disorders. Research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests teenagers 13-18 years old should regularly sleep 8-10 hours each night for a healthy sleep. The teens who do not get a good amount of sleep are more likely to suffer from mental conditions, smoking, illicit drugs, and alcohol use. ¨Not getting enough sleep is common among high school students and is associated with several health risks including being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using drugs, as well as poor academic performance.¨ (¨Schools Start Too Early¨). On an NBC news story, Hilton Head Island High School moved its start time and benefits were noticeable. Students had higher test score averages and grades improved throughout the school.A study done in 2008 published in the journal of clinical sleep, found car accident rates fell by 16.5% when students were more aware on the road, not having to wake up before 7 am.
We’ve all woken up tired not wanting to go to school, because we didn’t get enough sleep. Of course when I say we, I mean as in teens who go to school, and possibly yourself when at the time in your life. The schedule for school doesn’t fit in very well with our sleep patterns. Sleep experts from the University of Minnesota, have found that later start times made students have a better health measure and over perform better in school (Hoofman 2). Research being done on this topic mostly specifies that bodies don’t agree with the start time, for various reasons. School start times should be pushed back an hour to benefit teens health, and school performance.
Smith, Kelly. "Research Links Later School Start Times to Benefit for Teens." 13 Mar. 2014:
In more than 40 states schools start before 8:30, so if a student does not go to bed very early they will very tired and have a hard time getting to school, kids need at least 8 and a half to 9 and half hours of sleep a night. The University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement finally did a test to see if starting the school day later would affect the students
The amount of hours of sleep the average teenager needs is 9 hours; For those of us that have to wake up at 6 am to get to school on time, that means going to bed by at least 9 pm. By the time you get home from school and eat, shower, and start homework, you'd barely have time to breathe before you'd have to go straight to bed to wake up and be ready and awake for school. So we all know that sleep is an essential part of our day to day lives, it’s what gives us the energy to stay awake. What many people don’t realize is that sleep deprivation, or a deficiency of sleep, does more harm to us than just leaving us tired for a day or two.
When children make the transition from primary school to middle school or high school, it affects them a lot when the changing of their own sleep cycle affects the way they actually learn. Dr. Judith Owens, who is the director of the Sleep Medicine Clinic at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., says "adolescents are programmed to fall asleep later,” (2013). She wants to change school start times to later because "we are asking [teens] to be awake and alert at the time in their 24-hour clock when their alertness level is at its very lowest,” (2013). She also says that most teens can’t usually fall asleep until 11 p.m. Sleep expert Amy Wolfson of College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., says that children should try to get eight and a half to nine and a half hours of sleep a night. Waking up at six a.m. leads to bad sleep patterns creating sleep deprivation.
Selley, Chris. "Go on, sleep in: Toronto schools mull shifting classes to 11:30 to help dozing students." Maclean's 19 Nov. 2007: 158. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 18 Mar. 2012.