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Sierra Williams
College Comp I period 7
Mrs. Cramer
24 March 2017
Is More Sleep the Real Answer?

Making school start times later is the way to go. There are several reasons behind why this would

have such a positive impact on students. Changing school start times would give students the proper

amount of sleep that will increase their attendance, mood, and test scores. Later school start times have

been publicized as a way to increase student performance. Schools should start later to help improve

attendance and test scores.

First of all, the amount of sleep that the average high school student is getting is not healthy. The

ideal amount of sleep for teenagers is about 9 hours every night (American). More than half of

teenagers between the ages 15 through 17 get 7 hours or less each school night (American). By starting

school at a later time, students will get more sleep. Sleep is a big deal when it comes to teenagers 1. When

students start to enter adolescence, hormonal changes make it difficult for them to handle early start times

by going to bed earlier (Edwards). Teenagers tend to go to sleep late, and get up later in the morning. The

sleep-wake cycle is directed by the homeostatic drive for sleep, and the circadian rhythm. These processes

are also known as Process S and Process C. Process S builds during wakefulness, and makes you feel

tired. This process starts to get weaker for teens entering adolescence. Process C helps tell their body

when the right time for sleep is. Like Process S, it also changes as they head into adolescence. This is

called Delayed Phase Preference. Both of these processes heavily influence mood and learning abilities.

Just fixing an issue with one, does not necessarily mean it will do the same with the other as well

(American). For example, going to bed earlier does not necessarily make them less tired early in the

morning. There are certainly several known benefits of sleep, some new, and some that might not have
1 This is an example of epanastrophe because the last word in one sentence, was also the
first word of the next sentence.
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even been discovered by scientists yet. Sleep leads to increased benefits, like memory and learning,

attention, emotional regulation, mental health and well-being, and weight control (American). These are

huge benefits that are increased simply by getting the proper amount of sleep at night. While getting the

proper amount of sleep is obviously necessary, that means that there are concerns associated with lack of

sleep. Students that arent getting enough sleep are likely to start having problems with their ability of

retaining information, attention, and just overall awareness of what's going on throughout the school day.

Students' behavior in the classroom environment can also start to decrease due to lack of sleep, as well as

their ability to regulate their moods (American). Also, students who attend early-starting schools are more

likely to skip breakfast because they are waking up earlier. This over time can lead to problems with their

health (Edwards). There were two surveys done to look at how delaying start time by 30 minutes and 45

minutes can have an effect on teenagers' sleep patterns, behavior, sleepiness during the day, and mood.

Between the two surveys, the percent of students getting fewer than 7 hours of sleep decreased by 79.4%.

Those receiving at least of 8 hours of sleep increased from 16.4% to 54.7%. The amount of students that

said they were not getting enough sleep, also decreased significantly between the first and second survey.

The percent of students that reported having difficulty falling asleep at least several times a week did not

have much of a change, but that is a different problem that has nothing to do with the delaying of school

start times. The second survey also showed a decrease in daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and depressed

moods among students. Most health related issues like visits to the school health center for fatigue-related

complaints also improved from the first to the second survey (Burke).

Not only does changing school start times have a huge effect on student's over well-being, but it

also has plenty of other benefits as well. Supporters of later start times argue that students are not getting

enough sleep with such early start times2, and that later start times would boost their achievement

(Edwards). Finley Edwards from Wake County, North Carolina performed a study to explore how start

2 analepsis- I used the term "school start times" two times in a two sentences to emphasize
the main point of my essay.
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times affect the performance of middle school students on standardized tests. He found through this study

that delaying school start times by one hour, increases standardized test scores by at least 2 percentile

points in math and 1 in reading. Students that have below-average test scores showed to have the largest

impact from this one hour delay in the start time (Edwards). This suggests that later start times would

reduce the gaps in student achievement. There was another survey in 1966 that showed considerable

evidence that less sleep is associated with a decrease in the attentiveness, and retention of information.

This was shown in laboratory settings and through self-reported sleep habits (Edwards). When it comes to

starting school at a later time, that also means less time spent at home in the evening after school. If

students are getting home later, they have less time for distracting activities like watching television, and

more time for homework. Less distracting activities can lead to fewer absences. Students who start school

just one hour later end up watching 12 fewer minutes of television every day, but instead spend 9 more

minutes on homework per week (Edwards). This is because they are spending less time at home alone. If

students watch television when they are home alone, but do their homework when their parents are home,

this could clarify why students who start school later have higher test scores. As well as its impact on

higher test scores and students attentiveness, a later start time also increases students' attendance. Because

they get out earlier, they might spend less time playing sports, watching television, and other activities,

and more time on homework. This means they could be more likely to be absent or tardy, or have

behavioral problems in school. Wake County students who start school one hour later have 1.3 fewer

absences than the typical student, which is a decrease of 25 percent. This means increased student GPA,

increase in state assessment scores, increase in college admissions test scores 3, and better chance of

getting into a good college (Edwards).

In addition to this, a later school start time also means a lower crash rate. Teenage drivers starting

class early in the morning are involved in significantly more car accidents than those who start later. The

3 asyndeton- This is an example of this, because I did not use a conjunction for a long
sentence.
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weekday crash rate for teen drivers is 29% higher in Chesterfield County, Va. where classes starts at 7:20

a.m., than it is in Henrico County, Va. where classes start at 8:45 a.m. (National). This just goes to show

that teenage drivers driving to school this early can be dangerous for them, and other students that they

might drive. Inadequate sleep appears to have harmful consequences such as declines in mood and

increased risk taking, impaired academics and increased crash rates. The problem is that when high

school classes start early in the morning, they're being asked to shine when their biological clock tells

them to sleep. There was even a report from AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety that estimated that

drowsy driving may cause 328,000 motor vehicle accidents and 6,400 fatal crashes on U.S. roads each

year. Previous data by them has also shown that currency of car crashes due to drowsy driving is highest

among drivers between the ages of 16 and 24 years (National).

In conclusion, school should start later to help improve attendance and test scores. There are more

and more data suggesting that inadequate sleep is common in teens and that early school start times are a

contributor to their lack of sleep. There needs to be a smarter well thought through school start time in

order to improve students' safety, overall health, mood, and academic performance.
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Works Cited

Edwards, Finley. "Do Schools Begin Too Early?" Education Next. N.p., 25 Dec. 2016. Web. 15 Mar.

2017.

George, Donna St. "Debate over School Start times Flares Anew." The Washington Post. WP Company,

01 Jan. 2017. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

"Late School Start Times Promote Adolescent Well-Being." The American Psychological Association,

n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

"Sleepy Teens Crash Their Cars More Often." The Science Teacher. National Science Teachers

Association, 01 Jan. 2015. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.

Staff, Contemporary Pediatrics. "Later School Start Time Improves Teens' Sleep and Mood."

Contemporary Pediatrics. Advanstar Communications Inc, 01 Sept. 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.