Should High Schools Have a Later Start Time?

Introduction

Many high school and middle school students are chronically sleep deprived, which inhibits their ability to function, learn, and develop to their fullest potential. In response to very early start times for school in the light of this challenge many researchers and policy makers are calling for later school start times which seek to honor the natural circadian rhythm of the youths. However, the function that school provides as day care has parents conflicted about their own obsessive work habits, and the need to keep their children occupied. Having enough sleep is not one of the chief cardinal virtues in consumer America, and it is the children who are suffering the most from this fanaticism. 

The Need for Sleep 

The need for sleep is pushing the issue of later start times for high school’s around the nation. The most basic facts which have recently come to light highlight the need for an adjustment:

• Teens need 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep each night.

• 2/3 of high school students get less than 7 hours of sleep.

• 43% of U.S. public high school start before 8 a.m.

• 33% of teenagers report falling asleep in school. (Start School Later)

The adjustment of start times has already begun, but it has a long way to go until the majority of students sleep cycles are respected. Recently, the “Seattle school board voted to adopt an 8:45 a.m. start time beginning next year.  It will be for all of its high schools and most of its middle schools.  Seattle joins 70 districts across the nation adopting later start times” (Blankinship). However, policy makers are emphasizing that the need for later start times requires faster action. 

Research continuously emphasizes that young people need more sleep due to the developmental process, and if this need is ignored it can have drastic and long term effects. Without enough sleep young people will not be able to maximize their learning opportunities, and it could result in long term cognitive impairment;

Young people who do not get enough sleep night after night carry a significant risk for drowsy driving ; emotional and behavioral problems such as irritability, depression, poor impulse control and violence; health complaints; tobacco and alcohol use; impaired cognitive function and decision-making; and lower overall performance in everything from academics to athletics. (National Sleep Foundation)

Thus, early start times coupled with chronically poor nutrition may be a newly emerging factor in the rise of school violence, behavioral problems, and the drooping national education results. Dr. Judy Owens of Boston Children's Hospital has written the hospital’s policy on teen sleep which encouraged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to advocate for later sleep times. Dr. Owens emphasizes that teens getting enough sleep will improve every aspect of their lives, and that “Chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common – and easily fixable – public health issues in the U.S. today” (Walker). However, the most fundamental reason that children are shipped off to school so early is often due to how early their parents are required to be at work. School is daycare, and just as the parents are sleep deprived by overwork, students are being gilded for a life in the consumer rat race regardless of their developmental needs. 

If start times were moved later many more buses would be required to get the children to school. Many parents do not really care about their child getting enough sleep, as was the case in St. Paul, MN, when this was proposed;

The district could not overcome parent complaints about earlier start times for elementary students.  Those times were made necessary because of the new later times for high school students. It would cost St. Paul about $8 million to add more buses, explained Jackie Statum Allen.  She is assistant director for strategic planning and policy. (Blankinship)

For the most part the more economically driven a region is the more difficult it will be to put children’s sleep needs first. As in “An effort to move school start times in Chicago failed.  The district tried to make the change without community input. ‘It backfired terribly’” (Blankinship). For any long term education policy to take root it is very helpful to have the parent’s support. Another element of the challenge for busing is the traffic time involved in a later start time. Analysts emphasize, “We start early, because it’s better on traffic. They’re picking up kids by 6:30, 7 o’clock. If we push that back half an hour, it just changes the traffic pattern. It’s worse” (Bolonon-Rosen). This will have to be taken into account, and could play a large part in the logistics of timing.

However, such a slight schedule change has many implications. Another challenge was found in Seattle, where parents “argued that later start times would get in the way of after-school activities. The Seattle change was approved in part because the district listened to parent feedback on an initial proposal” (Blankinship). Parent feedback is important, but it must be balanced with the need for policies which reflected the greatest interest. 

Unfortunately, many parents disregard their student’s health needs as they are fixated on the rat race of life. It has consistently been observed, “Unfortunately, concerns about lack of sleep often get the brush-off from schools and even some parents who are quick to blame inattentiveness in school solely on teen behavior, laziness, general indifference, or all of the above” (Walker). These perspectives are actually what they project, for those who disregard their children’s developmental health for budgeting or convenience reasons are indifferent and lazy (Blankinship).

Eventually this change will most likely occur across the board, as more and more research emphasizes this is a simple change which can improve the lives of all students, and when their lives are better families and culture will be strengthened. Researchers confidently claim that this change of,

The synchronization of education to adolescent biology enables immediate advances in educational attainment and can be achieved with a relatively simple step that does not require new teaching methods, new testing or large additional expenditure…Good policies should be based on good evidence, and the data show that children are currently placed at an enormous disadvantage by being forced to keep to inappropriate education times. (Walker)

In support of this measure Harvard and Oxford researchers are clarifying that youths would benefit from going to school after their biological wake up times, which vary with development:

• Age 10: Wake-Up Time: 6:30 a.m. School Start Time: 8:30

• Age 16: Wake-Up Time: 8:00 a.m. School Start Time: 10:30

• Age 18: Wake-Up Time: 9:00 a.m. School Start Time: 11:30 (Walker)

However, these times are unlikely to be realized no matter how conducive they are to developmental health. 

The research on the need for fuller teen sleep is now indisputable as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune shared last year when over 9,000 students were analyzed from eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming. This research “found that shifting the school day later in the morning resulted in a boost in attendance, test scores, and grades in math, English, science, and social studies. Schools also saw a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression” (Richmond). Over the past decade, the importance of syncing up with the circadian rhythm has been closely correlated with sleep research used to shift policy discussions. Research consistently finds that “students showed up for morning classes seriously sleep-deprived and that the 7:20 a.m. start time required them to be awake during hours that ran contrary to their internal clocks” (Richmond). Sometimes it seems like there is not enough hours in the day to get everything done, and in the case of children it should be remembered to safeguard their actual childhood. Childhood is so brief, and forcing children into adult rat race schedules steals it altogether. 

The current times school’s start force children into unnatural relationships with their bodies, and their need for sleep. After all, nearly 10% of U.S. high schools currently start before 7:30 a.m., 40% start before 8 a.m., and only about 15% start after 8:30 a.m. Over 20% of U.S. middle schools start class at 7:45 a.m. or earlier. Bus pick-ups start shortly after 5:30 a.m. in some and teens must wake at 5 or 6 a.m. to get to school on time. (Start School Later)

This is not very healthy for anyone, but especially damaging for developing teenagers. Ultimately this is a question of balance of priorities, and if parents are unwilling to put their children’s developmental health needs before their own obsessive need to keep busy (Balonon-Rosen).

In further support of this measure, Dr. Owen’s study found evidence of many correlating factors in support of a later start time. She found, children’s “bedtimes, on average, actually shifted earlier by 20 minutes…They were more efficient at getting their work done, because they were awake, alert, focused and they could get their homework done so they could get to bed earlier” (Balonon-Rosen). Findings like this go a long way towards supporting the change, as parents will be encouraged by such real examples of student’s taking initiative not only to get more sleep, but to be more productive.

Conclusion

America’s youth are being gilded for lives as consumer wage slaves, at the cost of their childhoods, health, and freedoms. The results of this chronic pressure are seen in rising rates of obesity, depression, and violence which is gutting the nation’s sense of family and identity. Later school start times is one of many shifts which could be made to support youthful development and psychological health. Parental resistance to this measure should be dealt with through furthering their own education of their child’s needs. Sleep is a key aspect of this developmental process, and a later start time will go a long way towards giving America’s youth the opportunities they need.

Works Cited

Blankinship, Donna Gordon. “School starting later for some high school students.” The Associated Press, 5 Jan. 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/school-starting-later-some-high-school-students/

Balonon-Rosen, Peter. “Maybe High Schools Should Start Later — But How?” Learning Lab, 22 Dec. 2015. Retrieved from: http://learninglab.legacy.wbur.org/2015/12/22/districts-explore-later-start-times-for-high-schools/

National Sleep Foundation. “Backgrounder: Later School Start Times.” Sleep Foundation, 2016. Retrieved from: https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/backgrounder-later-school-start-times

Richmond, Emily. “Why School Should Start Later in the Morning.” The Atlantic, 17 Aug. 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/08/why-school-should-start-later/401489/

Start School Later. “Why We Must - and Can - Restore Safe & Healthy School Hours.” Startschoollater.net, 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.startschoollater.net/why-change.html

Start School Later. “Wake Up Calls (Fast Facts).” Startschoollater.net, 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.startschoollater.net/wake-up-calls-fast-facts.html

Walker, Tim. “Despite Proven Benefits, Starting School Later Remains a ‘Tough Sell’.” Neat Today, 20 Sep. 2015. Retrieved from: http://neatoday.org/2015/09/20/despite-proven-benefits-starting-school-later-is-still-a-tough-sell/