Photo owned by:BUFSD Welcome to school where students are sleepy and irritated. No one wants to be there and no one is energized. Everyone wants to be home and sleeping. This is a direct result of the school's early start time, too early for an average teenage brain. This hinders brain function and cognitive ability. High school's early start time leads to detrimental effects on teenagers' brains and physical bodies.
The biggest effect of school's negative impacts is sleep deprivation. 70% of high school students identify as sleep deprived ("School"). School does not give students enough time to sleep. Wahlstrom shares information from a sleep study foundation that shows, "sleep requirement for teenagers is 8-10 hours" (Wahlstrom). However, most teens are getting 7 hours of sleep. Schools cannot keep expecting students to fulfill all their high expectations all the time. Are schools really expecting students to finish their school work,chores, after school activities, sports, family commitments, work, and have time to manage their sleep schedule? Right now, school is not designed for their students to work the most efficiently. Teens are wired physically and neurologically to prefer later sleep times than adults (Strauss). So why are adults making these start times based on their own brains, when the people they are making it for are biologically different?
While sleep deprivation is a negative in itself, the downfalls that come from it are even worse. Sleep deprived teens are much more likely to be susceptible to sickness, mental health disorders, skin problems, and developing more unhealthy habits ("School"). Sleep deprivation is destroying teens' ability to sleep. As well as not getting enough sleep, students are also developing sleeping disorders. According to Strauss's article, teens are suffering from narcolepsy, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and sleep apnea more than ever. How can teens ever catch up on sleep if these sleep problems caused by school are hindering their ability to sleep?
This is a growing problem and schools have to do something about this. If school administrators keep ignoring the problem it will only get worse. Schools need to adjust their start times and start working for the students instead of against them. Students function better academically, physically, and emotionally when schools start after 8:30 (Strauss). Start times after 8:30 will lead to a decrease in sleeping and mental health in teens. According to Wahlostrom’s article, "Sleepy teenage brains need school to start later in the morning," depression in teens also rises significantly when they get less than 9 hours of sleep (Wahlstrom). Starting school earlier will not only benefit students' grades, but their mental health as well.
Thousands of high schoolers from all over the country are negatively being impacted because of these start times. Schools need to start prioritizing their students. Start petitions, go to school board meetings and become active in your community. While change won't happen overnight, schools across the country have already tried to start fixing this is a growing problem.
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