What is the point of school? You might be thinking, “Oh, that’s obvious, the point is to learn.” I would agree, but you can’t learn if you’re falling asleep and ill during classes.
Before both of the Industrial Revolutions, your education depended on many things, such as region, gender, race, and social class, but by the mid-1800s most states requirerequired kids to go to school. As a kid who went through public school his whole life, I know by experience the dread of waking up at 5 AM, 5 days a week, for 12 years.
The American Academy of PediatricsPediatricians recommends standard school start times at 8:30 AM. According to URMC, teens should get around 8-10 hours of sleep per night. Hormone changes can cause teens to have more issues sleeping, and sleep deprivation can cause many issues like trouble paying attention, issues developing, health problems, emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, etc, and trouble fighting infections.
An average of 90% of students report mediocre to poor sleep on school nights. Delaying school start times doesn’t only improve mental and physical health, it also boosts academic benefits, which is why it’s only rational to extend school start times. During a URMC study, researchers found stronger links to earlier start times and worse symptoms of depression and anxiety in students than compared to those with later start times.
For example, another URMC study reveals that teenagers who have earlier school starting times may be at greater risk for anxiety and depression caused by poor sleep. Some may argue, “Why can’t you just go to bed earlier and wake up later?”. Well, going to bed early may not be a choice for some, they may have extracurriculars, homework, upcoming tests to study for, jobs, chores, etc, which makes it harder for us to wake up in the morning and even harder to get through school. Waking up later is not an option for most. For me, my bus picks me up by 6:48 AM, meaning I have to leave the house by 6:43 to walk to my bus stop. If I woke up at 6:00 AM instead of 5:00 AM, I would have no time to get ready.
Early school start times can be harmful to students who put time and work into learning, as a society we should all collectively spread awareness about the effects that early start times can cause. We can increase awareness by word-of-mouth or even by sharing articles with others and the school administration.
