School Start Times Should be Adjusted to Accommodate Student Sleep Patterns
October 24, 2016
Hitting the snooze button is something that most people have done at least once in their lives to buy a few extra minutes before getting out of bed. Especially when you’re a teenager slammed with school, sports, and maybe even an after school job, getting enough sleep can seem like an impossible task.
Several Vancouver, WA high schools — Evergreen, Heritage, Mountain View and Union — all have one thing in common: These schools used to begin at 7:45, and now begin at 8:40. I believe that more schools, including La Salle, should push back their start times to allow high schoolers to get some extra sleep in the morning.
The trade off of a later start time is a later release. Although the release time is pushed back, the benefits of a later start time far outweigh the negatives.
First of all, the reason the change was made in Vancouver was in the hopes of seeing an improvement in academic success.
“We’re trying to reach every student,” John Steach, the deputy superintendent of the Evergreen school district, stated. “This is one more way to reach that last 16.6% that we have struggled to get across that graduation threshold.”
Graduating high school is obviously an important step to future success, whether that’s going to college or getting a job. When students arrive to school tired, they cannot perform to the best of their ability. A study done by Kyla L. Wahlstrom, the director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational improvement at the University of Minnesota, found that when schools started at 8:35 or later, students’ grades in science, math, English and social studies all increased. As the research proves, schools that start later will see an improvement in academic success.
Another reason why schools should start later is to accommodate for the number of sleeping hours a teenager needs during an important time of growth.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, a teenager should be getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night. We’ve all heard the spiel of how many hours or sleep we should be getting, but even if we know the number, it’s not always possible to get the adequate amount of sleep in one night.
People may say, “Why don’t teens just go to bed earlier?” Well, that’s easier said than done. Not only do teenagers have a biological clock that makes it hard to fall asleep before 11 pm, but they also have to balance school and other activities. Students who have packed after school schedules can have a hard time getting homework done on time on top of other commitments, and the only way to do so is to stay up late at night.
Late night study sessions lead to sleep deprivation; this is especially the case when they happen two or three times a week. When students go to bed at midnight, and have to wake up at six to get ready for school, they are only getting six hours of sleep a night. That’s two hours less than the recommended amount, which can quickly add up as the school year passes. With a later start time, students would be given more time to sleep in in the morning which allows for more time to do homework late at night, without worrying about sacrificing hours of sleep.
There have been concerns surrounding the idea of starting school later. Some people argue that if schools start later, parents will not be able to bring their child to school. This may be the case, however there are ways to avoid this issue. The first solution is that you can find a carpool. Carpooling is a great way to meet new people and save gas money. If carpooling doesn’t work, another alternative is that students can either ride public transportation or the school bus.
Here at La Salle, I look forward to Wednesday and Friday mornings because we start school at 9:15. Getting ready for school on Wednesday and Friday mornings is completely different for me than getting ready on a Monday, Tuesday or Thursday morning. On Monday mornings I find myself feeling stressed and tired, but on Wednesday mornings I feel more refreshed and ready to start the day. More and more schools are beginning to make the switch to a later start time. Even if La Salle pushed back the 8:00 start time just thirty minutes to 8:30, it could make a huge difference in a high schooler’s life. This change would accommodate for the natural sleeping patterns of a teenager, and allow students to be able to succeed in school. Now, when Monday comes around, students wouldn’t have to worry about pushing the snooze button ten times before rolling out of bed.
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What do you think about school start times? Do you think La Salle should change its start time? Let us know in the comments below!
Creative Commons photo source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/-konayuki-/6353317965
Emily Hawkins • Nov 1, 2016 at 7:01 pm
I think that either way we’d have an issue. If we start earlier, we would complain about having to get up early after staying up late. If we start later, we would complain about getting out of school so late. That would leave us with fewer hours to complete homework and go to practice. I think having late starts a couple times a week enables us to sleep in or go to bed earlier and finish homework in the morning.
Molly Hogan • Oct 25, 2016 at 8:00 pm
Having a later start time would be nice, but that would mean that we would be up later doing homework and extracurricular activities would end very late, again taking time out of doing homework. Starting school at a later time just isn’t practical.
Nicole khoury • Oct 24, 2016 at 10:02 pm
I would love to have a much later school start but what about sports and afterschool activities?
Natalie • Oct 24, 2016 at 7:14 pm
Having school start later sounds wonderful. However, school ending later means you get home later, so then homework will also be started later. I know that I wouldn’t be able to get up early to do homework, so I would complete it all the night before, but I would be able to get started sooner and finish earlier if school remained starting at the usual time. We also already have two late starts which are very helpful to catching up on sleep during the week, so I don’t think we need everyday to start later. If school started later, we would all get used to that time and then want it to start even later, so what would be the point?Another thing is that if school were to be dismissed late, it would give students less time to hang out or do whatever you do after school before dinner/the day’s end.