4:45 a.m. That is when the alarm goes off for Morgan to start her day. She begins by opening her groggy eyes and is not motivated to start another school day. Once again, she thinks day in and day out, “Why do I even go?” By 6:05 a.m. she gets on her bus and starts regretting school and every thing about it. Just like Morgans some public schools start as early as 7:30 a.m. which causes the students from ages 14-18 to get less sleep and stay up later. A post made by The Washington Post says, that teens tend to stay up later because of the sleep clocks that get interupted by puberty due to the start times.

This being said, schools need to keep in mind that students are still growing up going through puberty battling the everyday fight to wake up and go to school. Research done by Dr. Mary A. Carskadon of the National Sleep Foundation shows, the typical adolescent’s natural time to fall asleep is 11 p.m. or later, because of this change in their internal clocks, teens may feel wide awake at bedtime, even when they are exhausted. This leads to sleep deprivation in many teens who must wake up early for school, and thus do not get the 8 to 9 hours of sleep that they need. It also causes irregular sleep patterns that can hurt the quality of sleep, and cause them to be drowsy the remainder of the day. The demands older students face in academics, extracurricular activities, social opportunities, after-school jobs, and other responsibilities also may allow these students to receive less sleep and therefore lack the necessary recharge.

How It Affects Them

Image by Shanghai killer whale via Wikimedia

A post made by The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Population Health proves, “that not getting enough sleep is common among high school students and is associated with several health risks including being overweight, smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, using drugs, and some symptoms of depression, as well as poor academic performance.” One of the main reasons adolescents do not get enough sleep is because of early school start times. Schools and school districts need to understand for their successes of their students, and keep in mind their basic needs. This same Doctor acknowledges, that “many schools across the country are working to keep up with school clocks with students’ body clocks. While working to bring school start times in line with teens’ sleep needs presents a number of challenges and opportunities.” Very few teens, as little as 15 percent, are getting the sleep than they need. Being short on sleep means, teens face challenges to their health, their safety, their performance, and their ability to learn. It’s common for children to develop inconsistent sleep schedules during adolescence. Up late at night and up early during the school week, many teens sleep late on weekends, as a way to recover from the sleep debt they’ve accrued. But sleeping late on weekends only reinforces and enhances the delay in their bio clock, and makes it more difficult for them to fall asleep at a reasonable hour during the week. For teens, sleep is nothing less than fuel that powers their brain and its development. Sleep is a biological necessity and essential for health and daily functioning.

How It Should Happen

A post made by The American Academy of Pediatrics just issued a new policy statement recommending that middle schools and high schools start class no earlier than 8:30 a.m. All adolescents have different unique sleep rhythms that make it harder for them to go to sleep and wake up earlier, and that can affect academic achievement as well as cause other problems. [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The teens sleep-wake clocks are shifted two hours behind everyone else’s.[/perfectpullquote]

. This means that us teens need more time to wake up and fall asleep. The issue has been bubbling in school systems around the country for several years. Dozens of districts are changing high school start times, with some citing benefits including an improvement in academic performance and a drop in tardiness. Some districts have been unwilling to change start times because of scheduled after-school activities and problems with school bus schedules. This also causes an uproar because the student athletes will not only need to go to practice and games, they will need to finish homework. If the sports go later then the later the students will stay up once again, but this way, if schools started later the student athletes do not have to worry about the early start times.

Why Schools Won’t Change

Schools don’t want to change start times because it will effect the after school activities and the public transportation. The National Sleep Foundation posts, “Participation in other activities such as after-school tutorials, religious classes, community service, or clubs may also be jeopardized by a later release time. On the other hand, many students find that if they sleep more, they can finish their homework faster and have ample time to participate in extracurricular activities.” High school athletics are very important to many students who have obvious concerns about the impact of a change in start times on their ability to participate. Any delay in the start of school will most likely result in a later release time. Which may reduce time available for practice and matches, especially daylight hours. One result of later release times may be greater competition for gym space, which may result in the cancellation of some programs. On top of that most school districts have a balanced bus transportation system designed to run as inexpensively and efficiently as possible and any change in the school schedule can have a severe impact. The specific circumstances in each district vary, but problems that arise can include costs, recruiting drivers, and redesigning the routes, which can cause the students to miss the bus or be late to school.

What To Do

Schools need to keep in mind the necessities of not just their students and staff, but the parents, coaches, siblings, and trainers. These people are also affected by the outcome of school times and the attitudes of the students after they get home. If these students are suffering from sleep deprivation something needs to be done. Not only for them, but the people around them.

Featured image from Pexels