Students need at least 9 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep in order to function and develop properly (Wall), and yet millions of young and developing students who we are supposed to mentor are forced to wake up at an unnatural and unhealthy time, impeding their ability to function.Despite this, we expect them to go through an entire day of learning and work. Starting high school too early in the day has heavily impacted students' attention span, academic performance, and ability to learn in adverse and detrimental ways. Students aged 13 to 18 start to secrete melatonin at around 10:30 P.M., who then are forced to wake up at around 6:00 A.M. (Wahlstrom). This causes many teenagers not to get enough sleep, leading to a lower attention span and decreased academic prowess.However, this detrimental problem could be easily avoided by simply pushing back school starting times.

School starting too early has been around for far too long. Although it has its virtues, such as preparingstudents for jobs in the real world in which they’d have to wake up bright and early for, it ignores a gargantuan problem. Teenagers aged 13 to 18 have very differentneeds compared to fully grown and developed adults. Students need at least 9 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep in order to function and develop properly (Wall). You may be wondering how school starting early in the morning disrupts the amount of sleep which teenagers depend on to function. You may say “just go to sleep earlier”, however, most teenagers are unable go to sleep earlier than 10:45 P.M. as “the secretion of melatonin doesn’t begin until about 10:45 P.M.” (Wahlstrom), leaving them with less than 7 and a half hours of sleep if they go to bed right away, which most don’t. Teenagers also wake up unnaturally as they are forced to wake up while melatonin, the hormone that makes us go to sleep, is stillbeing secreted which “continues until about 8 A.M. This means that most teenagers are unable to fall asleep until melatonin secretion begins, and it's hard to wake up until the melatonin secretion stops.” (Wahlstrom).   

You may be wondering how schools starting early ties into anything that I have claimed, however, these start times are directly responsible for the sleep deprivation of millions of young students. You may ask “how?”, well the answer is very simple. Disrupting the sleep of students to this degree causes sleep deprivation which in turn has devastating impacts. As reported in an article published in 2022 by The Daily Gazette Editorial Board, it is “a situation that not only threatens academic performance, but their overall health”. It has also been discovered that sleep deprivation causes harm to the attention span of teenagers. This is seen in the article “How much sleep do teenagers really need?” by Wendy Hall which reveals that “a recent review identified increased risk for suicide, being overweight, high rates of injury, poor sustained attention span, and low grades for teens sleeping less than eight hours”. However, you do not need to worry, as this is a relatively simple issue to resolve. All that is needed from the schools is to push their start times later into the day. It has been showcased that this is achievable as both the Hingham Public Schools and Nauset Regional High School have already pushed back their start times. (McNamara)

​Some people may suggest going to sleep earlier. The answer to this is simple, it’s because they can’t. Teenagersaged 13 to 18 do not start secreting melatonin until around 10:30 P.M. (Wahlstrom). Though, even with this explanation, you may still make another excuse such as “it’s important as it prepares them for jobs which they would have to wake up early for”. This may have some merit as an argument; however, it doesn’t take an extremely important factor into account, students have very different needs from adults as students aged 13 to 18 need 9 to 10 hours of sleep in order to function properly (Wall), whereas adults only need about 7 to 9 hours.

​It has been shown that school starting too early directly ties into the poor attention span, grades, health, and academic performance of students around the country. Despite this, many school districts choose toignore this crucial fact and still continue starting school far too early knowing the numerous side effects it has on the students which they are trying to mold. If schools really cared about their students and their wellbeing, they would start later in the day to give them the sleep they need to develop into hard workers and functioning members of society.

WORK CITED

Hall, Wendy. "How much sleep do teenagers really need?" Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2024. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/PGCUIT835574744/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=e01984b0. Accessed 2 May 2024. Originally published as "How much sleep do teenagers really need?" The Conversation, 4 Mar. 2019.

McNamara, Brittney. "Why Schools Should Start Later and Teens Should Sleep More." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2024. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/PECSFF838512227/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=6ded672c. Accessed 2 May 2024. Originally published as "Why Schools Should Start Later and Teens Should Sleep More," Teen Vogue, 4 Jan. 2019.

The Daily Gazette Editorial Board. "New York Should Mandate Later School Start Times." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2024. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/PHVIHM437527662/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=84245788. Accessed 2 May 2024. Originally published as "Push now for later school start times," The Daily Gazette, 7 Sept. 2021.

Wahlstrom, Kyla. "Sleepy teenage brains need school to start later in the morning." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2024. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/PFETPI145570028/OVIC?u=lom_accessmich&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=d643e6b3. Accessed 2 May 2024. Originally published as "Sleepy teenage brains need school to start later in the morning," The Conversation, 12 Sept. 2017.