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Berkovits
Naomi Berkovits

Prof. Amanda Trejbrowski

ENGL 120

14 June 2022

Schools starting later and its affects

Sleep is important for people’s health and wellbeing. As a result, some schools have

implemented a later start time, so adolescents can get an adequate amount of sleep. The

results of such experiments were overall positive. Later start times created a system based on

the unique needs of the adolescent’s biological makeup. Adolescents who sleep on their proper

schedule have a lower risk of mental illness, drug abuse, and achieve higher grades.

Teenagers sleep in late because of biological factors that create a shift in their sleep

patterns. The circadian system of teenagers is different than those of adults (Urton 2018).

Therefore, many institutions have been pushing later start times in order to allow teenagers to

get more sleep. Some might argue that children need to be on the same schedule as their

parents. For many low-income families and single parent homes, it is too difficult to have their

children start later then work (Mijares 2019). What they might not realize it how different

adolescents’ internal clocks are. De La Iglesia compares asking “a teen to be up and alert at 7:30

a.m. is like asking an adult to be active and alert at 5:30 a.m.” (Urton 2018). Adolescents’

schedule should go according to their specific needs and not the schedule of the adult world

around them.

Furthermore, lack of sleep has many negative impacts on adolescents physical and

mental health. Since teenagers naturally go to bed late, when they must wake up early for
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school, they don’t get the required 8-10 hours of sleep (Center for Disease Control and

Prevention). This leads to the many problems teenagers face in high school. Lack of sleep can

lead to becoming “overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using drugs” (Center for

Disease Control and Prevention). Sleeping can be the solution to potential life changing bad

habit, like drug abuse. When I was in high school and running on not enough sleep, every issue

was magnified, and many bad coping skills were implemented. When looking at the bigger

picture, it’s clear that encouraging more sleep for adolescents is a small change with great

impact.

Additionally, sleep can have many beneficial outcomes for adolescents. A study revealed

that the marks in a biology class “were 4.5 percent higher for students who took the class after

school start times were pushed back” (Urton 2018). As well, it helped decrease lateness and

morning absences amongst the students at Franklin (Urton 2018). Overall, “well-rested

teenagers are better and healthier students” (Albarrán and Funk 2019).

These studies conclude that the benefits of starting school later are healthy, well-

rounded adolescents. Sleeping in and beginning late supports the natural schedule of

teenagers. Hopefully, more schools will take initiative so that adolescents can have well rested

and productive days.

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Work Cited

Albarrán, Nancy, and Chris Funk. “School Start Times Should Remain a Local Decision.”

EdSource, EdSource, 4 Oct. 2019, edsource.org/2019/school-start- times-should-

remain-a-local-decision/618127.

Mijares, Al. “Later School Start Times Is No Solution for Teenagers.” CalMatters, 4 Oct.

2019, calmatters.org/commentary/2019/10/later-school-start-times-is- no-solution-for-

teenagers/.

“Schools Start Too Early.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for

isease Control and Prevention, 29 May 2020, www.cdc.gov/sleep/features/schools-

start-too-early.html.

Urton, James. “Teens Get More Sleep, Show Improved Grades and Attendance with

Later School Start Time, Researchers Find.” UW News, University of Washington, 12 Dec.

2018, www.washington.edu/news/2018/12/12/high- school-start-times-study/.