⅖ of students who go to school who start at 8:00 or earlier only get 6 hours or sleep. And ⅔ of students who go to those schools only get 8 hours or sleep (sleepfoundation.org). Teens should get 9-10 hours of sleep per night so that they can do their very best during the day. If we had late start school, then students could do better in school and then that could affect their entire life. Why do schools start early if there are no benefits?
Students need about ten hours of sleep; however, most students, especially teens, only get around seven hours of sleep. If school started later we would be able to sleep in longer which could increase our concentration in class. It will also improve your health if you get the right amount of sleep. Teenagers are in an important stage of their growth, which means that they should get all the sleep they need. We need at least 9-10 hours of sleep and it’s proven that only 15% of teenagers get the amount of sleep they need.
However, extracurricular activities and homework get in the way. Furthermore, 6% of middle school students and around 20% of high school students fall asleep in school per day. In addition, ⅔ of high school students get less
Also, students had higher performances on alertness tests later in the day than in the morning hours. This is important because this fact shows that students are unfocused due to a lack of sleep and unable to give their best shot early in the morning. Therefore, students need to begin class at a later
Teens and kids actually function better if schools started maybe just an hour later. Students would first off get more sleep. David Dinges did a study of what kids function and reform better with so many hours of sleep. The students with 8 hours of sleep, learning curve rose and they did better at assigned tasks. Students that only got 6 hours of sleep, learning curve flattened; and the students that only slept for 4 hours were less able to perform tasks.
Year round schooling will take some time to get used to by the students, teachers, and parents. However, some people may feel that it would be easy for a school to switch to year round schooling. Most traditional schools now will go 180 days without many long breaks or vacations. The year round schooling would go for a certain amount of days in a row, roughly 45 days, then have about two weeks off (Yeager, Fred). Each year long schooling is different though, some have longer in school sessions with longer breaks.
They shouldn’t. You have been out of school for more than 2 months. How could you not forget? And that’s when year-round schooling comes in. Year-round schooling is better than traditional because it is better for students learning.
Most people will say that high school will be the best four years of a persons’ life, or that a person will miss high school once they are out in the real world. High school students would probably beg to differ considering the hours upon hours they spend doing homework or studying. Teens would also all agree that waking up in the early morning to get ready for school, or to not miss the bus is a dreaded part of their daily routines. Health Hours says “According to most sleep experts, most adolescents need about 9 hours of sleep per night. Today nearly 2/3 gets under 8 and 2/5 get under 6 hours of sleep per night.”
If a student went to bed at 11 pm they would have to sleep until about 7:30 am for an adequate amount of sleep; however, according to the CDC, almost 70% of high-school students report sleeping 7 hours or less on a regular basis. One reason high school students struggle with getting enough sleep has to do with a hormone in their body called melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone which helps control one’s sleep and wake cycles, but as children approach and begin going through puberty the melatonin in their body starts being produced on a delayed schedule. Therefore, adolescents have a hard time falling asleep or even feeling tired before 11
Lisa Lewis, author of “Why School Should Start Later in the Day” states that “Repeated studies show that when the school day starts later and teens get more sleep, both grades and standardized test scores go up. A Colby College economist, Finley Edwards, found that a one-hour delay in start time increased math test and reading test scores by three percentile points. Even more striking, the lowest-scoring students showed the biggest jumps” (Lewis 1). To add on to students test scores and grades rising, a later start time can give them the needed time to finish up homework. Sports and activities at night can make finding time for homework hard for students.
Have you ever felt sleepy during the day? Everybody needs a good night's rest in order to have a good day. Do you know any middle schoolers who would not love an extra thirty minutes of sleep? Most kids in middle school wish that their schools would start later. Schools at every level in the U.S. are struggling with this debate.
Many surrounding cities and towns are starting to implement later start times for middle and high school students. Many of these schools are finding positive outcomes. Some reasons for these positive outcomes include improved learning and health and students being more awake. Provided it is implemented properly, students should be able to get more sleep, otherwise it could have negative effects. Maybe changing school start times for Windham would benefit the students learning.
“Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together,” (Thomas Dekker), but with most middle and high schools starting before 8:00 am, students aren’t getting the recommended hours of sleep they need to do well in school. School start times should be later for middle and high schoolers for the protection of students’ academic scores, the reduced risk of traffic accidents, and for the protection of student health, although people may argue that parent work schedules may have to change and that the bus schedule change may or will be costly. Middle and high schools should start later for the positive impacts they would have on students and their families. First of all, the start times of middle and high schools should be later for the protection of students’ academic scores. Students who don’t get enough sleep get lower academic and standardized test scores.
Imagine walking into a first period classroom full of high schoolers. What would you expect? Here is what you should expect, kids who are ready to learn, kids who are enthusiastic. Even though that's what you should expect it's also what you should aswell, because when kids are tired they can’t learn and they don’t want to learn they want to sleep. School is about learning not getting up at 5 A.M. to make it on time.
School Should Start Later A recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that 60% of children under the age of 18 complained of being tired during the day, according to their parents, and 15% said they fell asleep at school during the year. This proves that kids aren’t getting enough sleep before school. I believe that a later middle school start time would have many beneficial effects on kids. As a result, kids would be more focused in class because they would be getting more sleep, that would lead to better grades, and finally reduced absenteeism.