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Faith Newbold

Jennifer Niester-Mika

English 112

April 12, 2017

School Times Too Early

When youre a student and you have to wake up early for school, but youre so tired and

all you want to do is get a little more sleep. That could be arranged! Students would all agree that

we are tired and want to sleep. There are many activities that go on after school that takes up a

students free time: practices, meetings, work, games, homework, and much more. There is an

average number of hours that an adolescent and everyone else should have every night. You

often hear that everyone should get at least eight hours of sleep every night. That statement is

almost correct. According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need on average 9 hours of

sleep per night. When students do not acquire that much sleep, they become less alert and

unengaged. School start times should be later because of many reasons and here is why.

There are many days where I cannot function until around 8:45 A.M. I am a student that

has a full load. I work, play sports, have college, and on top of all that all, I have additional

homework from school. I wont go to bed some nights until 11:00 P.M. because of all those

activities. I also have to wake up at 6:00 A.M to get to my early bird class at 7:10 A.M. On

average I get seven hours of sleep each night. That is two hours less than what I should be

getting. By missing these two hours of sleep, I am less energized and always tired. I frequently

wake up late for early bird due to a lack of sleep the night before.

Imagine a student who does well in school and has eight classes, plays a sport and also

works on the weekends. This student has to wake up at 6:00 A.M. to be to their first hour by 7:10

A.M. The day before the student had an away softball game an hour from home. The game
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finished around 8:00 P.M. This scenario means that this student athlete has been away from home

for already for 14 hours. Those 14 hours is not counting the bus ride home, shower time, and

school work. This student didnt go to bed until around 10:30 or 11:00 P.M. The next day this

student will be mentally and physically exhausted, only running on roughly six hours of sleep.

With a student doing this on a weekly basis and then having work on the weekends for a certain

time period, their health will be at stake.

When a students health is starting to become an issue because theyre not getting enough

sleep then there has to be action made. A student can become sleep deprived and it turns into a

domino effect. Depression, eating habits, mood swings, obesity, and other things are all caused

because of a lack of sleep (National Sleep Foundation). When your internal clock is interrupted

by waking up earlier than it should, different chemicals in your body starts to change. Dr. Mary

Carskadon conducted an experiment showing that the more mature adolescents had later

circadian rhythm timing, based on melatonin secretions in saliva samples (National Sleep

Foundation). This will result in students having problems going to sleep at night and also

waking up the next morning because of their internal clock being disturbed.

A school start time doesnt just affect the sleep patterns, but it also can become a safety

issue. Healthy Hours states that picking up kids early in the morning and letting them out around

2:30 P.M in the afternoon is a concern. For most of the school year it is dark in the morning in

many communities (Healthy Hours). This is a big issue because early in the morning people

dont see the kids waiting for the bus until they are close to them. Also if you add in the driver

being sleepy because they didnt get enough sleep then there is a problem. Those sleepy drivers

could cause a serious accident and could injure students waiting for the bus. Another issue with
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the release times is there are greater risks for risk-taking behavior, substance abuse, and

impedes judgment (Healthy Hours).

The early start times also have an effect on standardized test scores. Edwards looked into

data and found that delaying school start times by one hour, from roughly 7:30 to 8:30,

increases standardized test scores by at least two percentile points in math and one percentile

point in reading (Edwards). For my school, some students start at 7:10 and others start at 8:10

and we were in priority school status roughly two years ago. I believe if we had later start times

our test scores would have been better.

There are many solutions that I have thought about and also researched. Many schools

are starting to convert to an all-year round calendar. There are pros and cons to an all-year round

calendar. Some students would be for an all-year round calendar and some may think this idea is

crazy. Here are why schools should consider making the change.

First off, the students would receive more breaks throughout the school year. Having

more breaks in place of a long three month vacation would be beneficial because the students

would be able to retain more information. Then when the next school year approaches, teachers

would not have to spend the first month and a half re-teaching what the students should have

remembered. I know that this is a problem in my school district because I even forget what we

learned the year before.

Secondly, the year round calendar would help students and teachers catch up on the sleep

that they lose due to sports, meetings, clubs and other extracurricular activities. Sleep is very

important and an all-year round calendar would help students with sleep deprivation. The breaks

that come with the all-year round calendar can also help teachers and students recuperate due

to illness and the teachers would not have to use so many sick days, students would not have to
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miss so much school and both students and teachers would be more energized. When you look at

a regular school calendar with a three month break in the summer compared to a year round

calendar I am sure you would see more absences and tardies in the regular calendar compared to

the year round. This change would also help seniors with senioritis. Senioritis is a real thing

because I am feeling the effects of it right now. I do not have the energy to do my school work,

care about much of anything other than graduation. If I had more breaks throughout the school

year I wouldnt be so burnt out and ready to quit so fast.

Now there are disadvantages to the all-year calendar due to extracurricular activities and

working students and the times that they occur. There are ways around working while having an

all year calendar because if a student finds a job that will work with their school schedule, then

they will be able to work the random school breaks. Having more breaks, I think, would be more

beneficial to working students because then they would have money throughout the school year

and they would be able to do more things. Even if the district changed to an all-year round

calendar and had the start times be at 8:30 and release at 3:30 and add a few days if needed,

everything would work perfectly.

If a school added an all-year round calendar, changed the start and stop times and had six

to seven hours a day, I think it would be a big change for some, but would also be very beneficial

to the test scores, students sleep schedule, students retaining information, and less athletic

injuries.

I see more and more school districts changing to an all-year calendar and it seems to be

working for them with their extracurricular activities. This proposal should be taken into

consideration from all angles because it wont just benefit the students but it would benefit the

teachers and their families and the use of the buildings.

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Work Cited
Bronson, Po. "Snooze or lose: overstimulated, overscheduled kids are getting at least an hour's
less sleep than they need, a deficiency that, new research reveals, has the power to set their
cognitive abilities back years." New York, 15 Oct. 2007, p. 30+. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com. https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/backgrounder-later-school-start-
times/page/0/1

Wolfson, et al. Backgrounder: Later School Start Times. National Sleep Foundation,
sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/backgrounder-later-school-start-times/page/0/1. Accessed 6 Apr.
2017.

Edwards, Finley. Do Schools Begin Too Early? Education Next, 25 Dec. 2016,
educationnext.org/do-schools-begin-too-early/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2017.

A Good Night's Sleep for Student Athletes. Global Sports Development, 12 Nov. 2013,
globalsportsdevelopment.org/good-nights-sleep-student-athletes/. Accessed 6 Apr. 2017.
Writer, Leaf Group. Year-Round School Advantages & Disadvantages. Year-Round School
Advantages & Disadvantages | Education - Seattle PI, Seattle PI, 17 Aug. 2013,
education.seattlepi.com/yearround-school-advantages-disadvantages-2521.html. Accessed 6 Apr.
2017.

Why Change? Start School Later, www.startschoollater.net/why-change.html. Accessed 6 Apr.

2017.