On any given afternoon, teachers will find students slumped over their desks, sleeping, or not paying attention in class. Although most of these teachers may be offended by the apparent lack of interest, teachers should try to understand that teenagers are falling asleep in class because school starts too early.
Next year, Stevenson High School of Lincolnshire, Illinois, will move its start time back from 8:05 a.m. to 8:30. Their release time will remain at 3:25 p.m. Libertyville, and high schools all across the country, should follow this example.
Teachers are adults, and fortunately for them, this means that many of them have forgotten the struggles of teenagerdom. But for us, this means that they often cannot understand why we are so tired. In a National Sleep Foundation poll, 87 percent of high schoolers were getting insufficient sleep; however, 71 percent of parents believed that their adolescent did get enough sleep. Like those unaware parents, some educators can often forget to put themselves in our growing shoes.
The life of a high schooler does not contain much free time. Between eight hours of school, clubs, sports, jobs, homework, and family, not many teenagers are even able to get to sleep early enough for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep per school night when they have to be at school for a 7:30 a.m. start.
Even if they were able to go lights out early enough, it still might not be enough rest. Biologically, teenagers’ circadian rhythms change resulting in a two-hour “phase-delay” of the sleep-wake cycle. This biological change indicates that “the average teenager in today’s society has difficulty falling asleep before 11:00 PM and is best suited to wake at 8:00 AM or later,” says the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Since 2007, two out of three high school students have failed to get sufficient sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Chronic sleep loss contributes to poor health and development in teenagers, including “impairments in mood, attention, memory, behavior control, executive function, and quality of life…higher rates of absenteeism and tardiness…an increased prevalence of anxiety and mood disorders” and finally, an “increased use of stimulants (eg, caffeine, prescription medications)” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
A lack of sleep also affects school performance, including falling asleep both at school and while studying at home.
So if schools and educators are here to better our lives, shouldn’t they give us a
fair opportunity to be bettered? Shouldn’t they recognize that we are working as hard as we can, and that growing brains need a chance to rest?
Pushing start times back will benefit the entire high school community, especially the students. Find the balance. Start school later.
Kevin O'Neill • Dec 2, 2015 at 1:45 pm
Well researched and written article, Emma. Except SHS isn’t pushing the time back to give students more sleep. They are doing it so teachers can have meetings every morning to align curriculum and write tests. So they are essentially taking away instruction time for administrative teacher work, and I think that’s a bad policy. Teacher-student time is the most valuable time there is, and any less of it is a bad thing for education.
Also, will 25 more minutes of sleep really benefit students? Or will kids just stay up 25 minutes later?
If we were REALLY interested in matching sleep habits AND maximizing class time, we’d push back the start AND end time of school. But now you’re cutting into practice and rehearsal time, and extra-curriculars would be against that.
Great discussion starter, kid! Keep up the great work!