Why Schools Should Start Later Research Paper

21% of teen motor vehicle accidents are caused by drowsy driving. Many teens everyday are complaining about their school start times being way too early. Teen tiredness is now considered to be a public health pandemic. School starting at a later time is beneficial because it helps students catch up on sleep. It helps students stay out of trouble.

A poll conducted in 2006 found that only 20% of teenagers actually got an adequate amount of sleep on school nights. By the end of high school, students averaged less than seven hours, and most of these teens reported feeling tired during the day (Alic and Nienstedt 862-867). It has been twelve years since this poll was conducted, and the amount of high school teens that are getting a sufficient amount of sleep is only decreasing as the years go by. Wendy Troxel, a sleep researcher, states, “Sleep deprivation among American teenagers is an epidemic. Only about one in ten gets the eight to ten hours of sleep per night recommended by sleep scientists and pediatricians.”

Beep. Beep. “Uhh why do I have to go school, it’s so early in the morning.” This is a common phrase said by students that wake up early and have to go to school early. Should schools start later?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine asserts that early school days lead to accidents along the roads, depression among the young teenagers, and upsurge in poor performance academically for middle and high school students. Teens struggle through the challenge of waking up very early in the morning so that they can be at school at the right time. Research implies that teens should get at least eight to nine hours of night sleep for their good health. Various sponsors such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and Centers for Disease Control have the strong advice on why schools should start later. Nevertheless, by being able to sleep more before school starts, students will be able to become well rested, more attentive in classroom settings, and perform better as learners.

Your alarm clock goes off in the morning, you open your eyes a little and look at the time. It’s 6:00 am! Then you say “No, I don’t think it’s time to get up already.” After, you hit the snooze button and go back to whatever you were dreaming about, and sink into your soft cosy sheets again. Until later on your little brother comes to knock on your door and yells “Hey, it’s time to get up and go to school!”

The rant for a later school start time How do you think kids feel when they have to wake up exhausted and pull themselves out of bed to go to school? Kids hate waking up exhausted and aren 't built to wake up early. Some people may say it 's just a thing kids need to learn but it 's not. Kids need school to start at 8:30 or later because less sleep leads to kids not performing at their peak performance level, it can lead to a plethora of medical disorders that can easily be avoided, and kids aren 't wired to wake up early.

In his article “The Economic Case for Letting Teenagers Sleep a Little Later,” Aaron E. Carroll insists that schools should delay start times to reap the abundance of economic and academic benefits. Carroll states that by starting school later there is more opportunity to achieve the recommended nine to ten hours of sleep every night. However, there’s the argument that delaying school start times would only make students stay up later making no difference at all, which may be true for some individuals. Carroll disproves this argument with a statistic from a study showing that by simply delaying school start times by 25 to 60 minutes sleep times in teens increase by 25 to 77 minutes per week night; which means that students allowed to sleep in still go to bed around the same time equating to more sleep time. Further studies used in the article state that by allowing time for more sleep per night students achieve higher grades, which later equates to a higher salary.

Later School Start Times “About 90% of the teens, problem is insufficient sleep” (Dr. Chen), most of the adolescents are suffering of sleep deprived which is unabling them to be healthy and pay attention in class. Many of the schedules that are given in schools are the worst for teens because one one the things they require them to do is to wake up early to attend to the classes. Middle and High School start times should start later because it will benefit students academic growth, and improve health . Starting school times later will make teen have an academic growth. Starting school later could help teens academically because, they would be more attentive to any work or test that comes their way.

Schools around the world and in America are gradually changing to a year-round schedule (having school throughout the year with several three-week breaks) instead of having the traditional fall to spring schedule. People in favor of the year-round schedule support that you can keep previous info in your mind during your breaks and you can take constant breaks to relax. However, supporters of the traditional schedule say that students need to relax their minds to prepare for their next year. From personal experience, I think that students should have a year-round schedule with quarterly or holiday breaks. Experience aside, I think that the logical decision would be the chopped-up schedule.

Teenagers need many hours of sleep for them to be productive during the school day. By waking teens up as early as 5:30 in the morning just so they can get ready for school and be there on time is crazy. There are many different reasons schools should not be starting this early including bad grades, health issues or even injuries. By starting school so early in the morning teenagers aren't getting the eight to nine hours of sleep they need to function correctly during the school day. Having a later start time would be beneficial in more than one way.

“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.

To begin with teenagers usually need 8.5 hours of sleep a day. Not enough sleep for students has gone to far. 22,000 kids all across the USA are stressed and tired for school. School should start later because starting school early is not just a student complaint, it's an observation backed up by science. Studies have shown the brain doesn't properly function until two hours after students leave there rooms in the morning.

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.