It's Time to to Wake Up and Change School Start Times

April 12, 2022

By: Khaleeda Dawood

It's difficult to learn about derivatives and related rates at 7:30 am when all you want to do is sleep. Schools were made to be a place of learning, but are they really, when your body doesn’t have enough fuel for it?

A student who goes to bed at 10 p.m. and wakes up at 6 a.m. will get eight hours of sleep. But don't be fooled -- experts say teens need nine hours of sleep. Although for many of us, even 8 hours is a pipe dream.

Teenage bodies don't start releasing melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone, until nearly 11 p.m. This bedtime, coupled with a 6 a.m. wake-up call, would only allow seven hours of sleep; while many of us get by on six or less.

My point is that students are chronically sleep-deprived and a large body of scientific evidence indicates that this is bad for both their mental and physical health.

As ironic as it may seem, early morning school schedules are merely making the issue worse. Many students spend the school year largely entombed in fatigue and their academic performance suffers from it -- I know because I witness it.

Poor grades are just the beginning. A study by the National Sleep Foundation found that sleep deprivation in teens increased their risk of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. This same study showed that those who got less than seven hours of sleep thought of suicide and tried it more than those who slept at least nine hours.

The solution? Push back school times.

Ideally, the American Academy of Pediatrics says, the first bell should ring at 8:30 a.m. or later -- which is only the case at 15 percent of U.S. high schools.

The National Sleep Foundation also found that later school start times for middle and high school students led to a significant increase in their sleep -- what a coincidence.

For schools to start late they would need to end late, and many argue that sports and extracurricular activities would end too late in the evening; students would have no time for after-school jobs.

These are the logistical challenges of reality, but despite it, some districts have continued to implement later school times, like Niskayuna High school.

Niskayuna worked to create a Start Times Committee, which included parents, students, and administrators/staff, to push their high school time to 8:30 a.m. They did this as they saw the benefit of giving their students time to sleep.

The committee did significant work related to the impact on transportation, athletics, and music, as well as potential adjustments to the high school schedule that would lessen the impact on what time the day could end.

Niskayuna High school proved that starting school later is possible and that other schools are much capable of implementing something similar despite the complications that may arise --just as there would with any other change.

Students are encouraged to get involved in extracurriculars and take up jobs. Now imagine if these kids were to wake up an hour or two later. Those who do what they're supposed to do will be benefited the most -- for once. Although there might be those who abuse the power, there will also be just as many who will be grateful they had enough time to eat dinner and still get enough sleep.

I, for one, know what it's like to have a strenuous schedule as a student. I care about my studies, but on some occasions, I've slept through half of my favorite classes and entire periods of others. My teachers have been more than reasonable and understand the rigors of a full high school schedule. But the problem is that I miss important material. It's hard to approach a teacher, no matter how reasonable, to ask: "Will you explain the lesson to me? I slept through it."

As students, we have little say in large matters. Kids don't vote in school board elections and don't have much say in school policy. So, they are spoken for by those who fail to put themselves in our shoes. Adult bodies, unlike those of teens, are made to sleep and wake early, so teachers and administrators may not mind the schedule as much.

In too many minds, an inability to get up early equates to laziness, but the next time you read some article about the poor academic performance of high school students, ask yourself how well you'd do at physics, chemistry, math, history, literature, and foreign language when all your body desires is more sleep.