When we graduate from high school, we are supposed to look forward to the future ahead of us and not look back. College is supposed to be the best time of our lives, so why worry about high school anymore? I mean, we earned our degrees, and can't really go to the school functions or anything anymore. We're ALUMNI. We're done-zo.
But when I came upon a Time article that discussed how high schools should start later in the morning, I was instantly curious. In my high school, we had to be in homeroom by 7:15, one of the earliest starting times in our state. When I look back on how I woke up at 5:30 every morning, not only am I grateful that I wake up later now, but I remember how tired and unenergetic I was. That really shouldn't be; I was a teenager in high school who should have been active, blood pumping and all. But all I really wanted was just one more hour of sleep.
In the Time article, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) stated its recommendation that teenagers get 8-10 hours of sleep a night. My high school friends and I, however, remember receiving around 5-7. The AASM also recommended schools start after 8:30 –– over an hour later than my high school started.
When I spoke to my friends from college about the subject, they agreed that they also didn't meet the recommendations for sleep and their schools started before 8:30. Yet a study written by Time found that students who got by on fewer than 7 hours of sleep per night dropped by nearly 80% when their high school started later. Additionally, the number of teens sleeping for at least 8 hours per night jumped from 16.4% to 54.7%.
So it's pretty obvious that with a later start in high schools, teenagers receive the amount of sleep they need to get through the school day.
With more sleep comes better focus, and with better focus comes better drivers. When a teenager is sleepy and not as attentive behind the wheel as they should be, they are more likely to get in an automobile accident. This is actually a pretty common issue among high schools with early start times. One high school found that delaying the start of the school day can minimize car accidents, with the crash rates dropping 16.5% in the two years after shifting the start times an hour later. That means lives were positively affected, possibly even SAVED, because of starting just one hour later.
With the studies that have been conducted on the subject, it becomes pretty clear that high schools starting later in the morning isn't such a bad idea. From more sleep to better health and grades, to be safer behind the wheel, the benefits are pretty crazy. But these benefits can only come to the day schools consider the health and safety of their students the highest priority- and we can only hope this day is soon.
