Have you ever been yawning in class and thought about going back to your cozy bed? Maybe you wake up and want just one more hour of sleep, or maybe you get scolded by another teacher for sleeping in class. The reason this happens is because of our school start times.
With school starting at 7:20 a.m., students often have to wake up extremely early in the morning if they want to do anything before school. Maybe it’s making sure you look good doing makeup or checking out different clothes combos, or maybe you wanna cram in the extra homework you forgot to do before the due date comes. This adds to how early it is you have to wake up; at the latest you’re waking up at 6:30 a.m. to go to school.
Add this with the average time teens go to bed which is about 11:00 p.m. according to Mayo Clinic News Network and Children’s National Hospital. This means that most teens sleep only 7 and a half hours of sleep, which isn’t enough according to multiple sources including the Center for Disease Control which says: “The recommended amount of sleep for high school students is 8 hours each day.”
And sure maybe that’s only half an hour of sleep you’re not getting, but that half an hour adds up as school progresses. This causes teens not to get the proper amount of sleep that they need to go to school and learn.
Because we don’t get enough sleep this makes us have a harder time to listen and concentrate, increasing anxiety and decreased academic performance.
Kids having sports after school might struggle focusing on late night games. This is detrimental to a students mental and educational well being. Not to mention kids who walk to school have to endure the cold December weather in pitch black darkness. In addition to this, early start times are dangerous because of how early it is; roads often have not defrosted by the time school starts, leading to accidents getting to school.
How do we fix this problem? On days with 2 hour delays, I always felt ready and refreshed to go to school. So I think we could change the starting time to 8:20 instead of 7:20. Not 9:20 because then that would make school end way later than it needs to or is the norm. This allows us to get the proper amount of sleep and for it to be not only warmer but also not as dark.
This would also allow students to feel more refreshed and ready to go to school everyday. Not to mention the average high school start time around the nation is 8:00.
In addition to this, it would give more time for the roads to melt making traffic accidents less likely in winter conditions.
This is close to what Mountlake Terrace Elementary uses for their starting time too; they start at 8:45 a.m. and ends at 3:10 p.m..
If we had this same schedule maybe with a shorter ending time it would be the perfect schedule for students in my opinion.
However, a change in the end times to 2:50 p.m. could get in the way of sports and other afterschool activities, but could also positively affect time to study or do homework and give students time for themselves to do things like hobbies, relax or hang out with friends.
