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The effects of sleep deprivation on academic performance
Effects of sleep deprivation on students academic performance
Effects of sleep deprivation on students academic performance
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Have you ever had a restless night of sleep? The feelings of achiness and fatigue overwhelms you the whole day. Now imagine that you slept this was every night. Accomplishing simple tasks would be difficult if one is sleep deprived. Performing at your potential would almost be impossible. In order to get rid of these unforgettable feeling many people would sleep late and go to bed early. But with such early start times for high school many students feel sleep deprived and do not achieve their best. Doing so would improve students health. Some individuals feel that keeping the start times at their current time would be best for parents and school districts. However, many people believe that delaying school start times would positively impact students, outweighing the disadvantages. I believe that delaying school start times would be a magnificent idea for many schools.
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...
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...ld be an aspect school districts should evaluate. However, others may feel that pushing back start times would interfere with parent and administrative schedules. Clearly, the best viewpoint on this subject is to revise start times for high schools in order for students to obtain a more desirable sleep cycle and overall improved health.
Works Cited
Dawson, Peg, EdD. "Wakin' Up Is Hard to Do: The Challenge of Sleep in Teen Years." Wakin' Up Is Hard to Do: The Challenge of Sleep in the Teen Years. Duke TIP, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
"Eight Major Obstacles to Delaying School Start Times." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
"School Start Time and Sleep." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
"Teens and Sleep." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
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...
Many people argue that starting schools later will let students get more sleep and align with the students sleep cycles. But they do not factor in that students will just stay up later at night because they know that they do not have to get up as early in the morning. This will just leave students with less sleep than before. Also students will be up later finishing homework and socializing on their phones with friends. Although schools will now have been adjusted to fit with students sleep cycles, that does not mean that the students will actually
Later School Start Times Everyone has always hated getting up super early to go to school. As children get older they move to different schools, from elementary to middle to high school, and the start times get earlier. In elementary school it was never a problem getting up but getting older, it always got harder to get up and the days were always longer. Schools start so early in the morning that it is hard to focus and students tend to miss more of their earlier classes and attend all of their later classes. Schools everywhere should start later because it would benefit the students and teachers.
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.
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.
In a country that is searching for answers as to why its children are not performing at top capacity, it seems fairly obvious that one of these “answers” may be found in the time at which they start their school day. A kid’s general schedule in the morning is to wake up and go to school, yet doing this as early as 5 a.m. is causing many to question why the kids have to wake up so early. The health and grades of kids are being shown to be lower due to school start times, so the problem’s best resolution is to have the times change to later. School is causing a health worry. They aren’t getting enough sleep, when they need it most to develop their brains.
A question that most school districts have recently been discussing is, do middle schools and high schools start classes too early in the morning? As a student, I am concerned with the effects of waking up too early and not getting the amount of sleep that my body needs. In order for teenagers to get their needed eight to nine hours of sleep every night, schools should start thirty to sixty minutes later than they do now. Well rested students will be following their natural sleep patterns, perform better academically, and will have a healthier mindset. With a selective schedule we will be able to work around bus schedules and extracurricular activities to accommodate for a new and improved bell time.
Later May Help Sleepy Teens”). A late start would definitely increase the attendance and alertness of students. Compared to the meager performance of the sleep deprived students, a few extra hours of sleep would definitely make them more productive. High schools who started having later starts are producing positive results. A University of Minnesota study this year used many school districts such as Minneapolis to St. Paul who have later start times, and found the safety and educational benefits (The Editorial Board, “High Schools: Wake Up to Later Start Times: Our View”).
Firstly, in the first article, a girl named Jilly Dos Santos stands up to the school and makes the school starting time later, by leading many students to help change the starting time. It also talks about how even students reading the article can step up and show their opinion to their school district about school starting times! in the article it states,” Your body isn't just on a later schedule though— your brain also needs more total hours of sleep (about 9.25 a night) to function at its best. Sadly, most teens are able to squeeze in only about 7.1 hours, on average.” This shows that if people don’t change the school starting times, most teenagers are losing around 2 hours of needing rest! in conclusion, if people like Jilly Dos Santos step up to change school times, teenagers may finally be able to get the
Later start times would put buses on the roads closer to rush hour, affect families’ child care arrangements, and whether or not students can work part-time(Monaco, Michael). Acknowledging the negative consequences, the percent of people that are actually affected by them, doesn’t even come close to the positive outcomes that would result from a later start time. As a result, elementary schools would need to start earlier and teachers would have to change their schedules(Schute, Nancy). All of which are necessary sacrifices that can be given up in order to help increase student performance within the school district. With start times as they are right now, in the wintertime students already leave for school when it’s still dark outside(Erbacher, Megan). This is just a natural part of life, at some point everybody leaves for school or leaves for home when it’s dark outside and even more so when they join the
“Study: Many high school students don’t get enough sleep; performance suffers.” Health & Medicine Week 19 May 2013: 58. Academic Universe: Document. Lexis-Nexis. 13 Nov. 2013
"It’s time to wake up, sleepyhead.” “You better get up or you’ll miss the bus.” Teenagers across the U.S. are being forced to wake up when their bodies are telling them otherwise. Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (2014) recognized adolescent sleep deprivation as a public health issue and released a policy statement recommending that high schools and middle schools not start before 8:30 a.m. (Boyland, Lori, 2015). Despite this recommendation, many school districts across the United States are disregarding this announcement and starting school, as early as 7:10 a.m. Some teenagers struggle with performing at the high levels needed to be successful in today’s schools because of early start times. Stakeholders, such as parents
Introduction Sleep studies have been conducted since as early as 1913. However, the impact of school start times on student academics is often overlooked by most schools. In reality, start times can significantly affect academic performance by disrupting adolescents' normal sleep cycle, leading to a lack of sleep that impairs learning, and hindering academic performance. These theories have been tested through sleep studies, and most of them have been found to be true. Sleep Cycle Changes When children transition from primary school to middle or high school, it can significantly affect their learning due to changes in their sleep cycle.
Should school start at 7:00 or should it start later in the morning? In Douglas High School, start times are at 7:30 in the morning. Changing the school schedule to a later start time would result in many other changes affecting a lot of people. According to the Sleep Foundation, "The change will affect the entire community, from students and parents to businesses, libraries, police, youth sports clubs, bus drivers and many others." Altering the school schedule would influence numerous aspects of people’s lives. Highly coordinated routines would have to be changed and adapted to the new schedule. A later release time would take time off of students’ free time in the afternoon. Clubs, sports, jobs, and other after-school activities would have
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,...