Popular complaints from high schoolers are that it is too hard to keep good grades, do not get enough sleep, and have to wake up too early. This sounds like a tough list to tackle, but it turns out that if you solve one of these problems, the other two will also go away. This issue is waking up too early. An easy fix is to push back school hours, so that it begins at 8:30 of 9:00 AM instead of 8:00AM. This solution causes teens to be happier, healthier, and maintain higher grades.
Teen angst is commonly accepted as a part of the adolescence phase, but in reality, it’s a result from a chronic lack of sleep. Most people are not morning people, no matter how hard they try; especially not teenagers. Their happiness hinges on whether they got enough sleep, or if an alarm clock shocked them into awakeness, giving them hours less than what they need, and screaming at them to get ready for the next school day, and making them significantly unhappy. But if the beginning of school was delayed, those teens would get more sleep, and would therefore be happier. “Research has shown that most Americans would be happier, healthier and safer if they were to sleep an extra 60 to 90 minutes per night,” according to the American Psychological Association (APA). An extra sixty to ninety minutes that should be added to their morning before school begins. Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom conducted a study in a town called Edina in Minnesota, and found that after the school start time was switched from 7:20 to 8:30, 92% of parents said that their teens were easier to live with. This was due to the fact that teens could sleep in, get enough sleep, and then wake up happier. Parents were able to interact with their kids in the morning, even over breakfast. Changing school times is not only helpful to students, but also to their parents. (APA)
Happier teens are just one of the added bonuses to getting a later start in school; another is simply improved overall health. Teens who are happier and get enough sleep will be healthier, too. In a study conducted in eight different high schools with 9,000 students in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming, the University of Minnesota concluded that schools “saw a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression. Some even had a dramatic drop in teen car crashes.” A lack of sleep has also been linked to mental health problems, learning and behavioral issues, substance abuse, higher risk of obesity, and a greater number of teen traffic accidents. All of these issues are staring the high schoolers of America in the face, but no one has taken any steps to fix them. Starting school later is the first step to not only a happier, but a healthier and safer teenage population.
In the same University of Minnesota study, they also 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.” Not only will our teens be happier, healthier, and safer, but they can be smarter and more comprehensive, too. Later school times do not only influence the well-being of American teenagers now, but also how well they do in their futures. When Nauset High School in Massachusetts delayed their start time by sixty-five minutes, they saw the frequency of failing grades drop 53%, and the number of disciplinary days students were in dropped from 166 to just 19 days. Those are two significant improvements, and other studies have found a decrease in tardiness and an increase in overall attendance, too. So moving school start times not only enhances grades, but also gets more teens in school more often, then also increasing their amount of schooling and learning time; making America’s youth not only happier and healthier, but smarter, too.
There are many positive reasons that suggest delaying the start of school, and it would not be that difficult of a process. With the best interest of high schoolers in mind, it is advantageous to delay the starting bell at least half an hour. Even if students don’t take up the opportunity to sleep more, they will at least have more time to complete homework. If the only protests to later school times are related to high school sports and other extracurriculars, or the slight difficulty of finding different child care hours, then we need to get our priorities straightened out, because the benefits greatly outnumber the difficulties.