Darien middle and high schools should start later because teens stay up later. This is because it’s usually harder for teenagers to fall asleep earlier, so they tend to go to bed later. But as kids get older, schools seem to start earlier and earlier. Besides, teenagers have lots of homework and other activities. As a result, most teens are only getting around seven to seven and a half hours of sleep each night. But, they need around nine hours of sleep per night! Starting school later will change this. Besides, “puberty may biologically wire teens to stay up late and wake up late - which means that forcing them to bed earlier won’t do much good.” This means that most teenagers can’t easily go to bed earlier, even if they wanted to. Their body tells them to stay up late. So when they wake up early, it’s hard for them to get out of bed and start learning right away. Another reason why Darien middle and high school start times ought to be later is because teens have much more after-school activities and homework than elementary school kids. …show more content…
Teenagers seem to end up staying up much later with extra activities and not getting enough sleep. The answer is not to stop doing activities, but to push back school start times. This would also give more time for teenagers to do their homework. In Middlesex Middle School, we are supposed to have 14 minutes or less homework for each class. If each teacher gave you homework (14 minutes of it), then it would be a total of 84 minutes (excluding music). Most significant, teenagers need more sleep. They need even more sleep than a six-year-old! They stay up late and wake up early for school. Teenagers need to get around 9 to 9 ¼ hours of sleep each night, but they only get around seven hours! “Other studies of nationally representative samples of high school students find that fewer than 10 % obtain 9 or more hours of sleep a night, the guideline recommended for teens by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” In other words, most high school students aren’t getting enough sleep. When these students don’t get enough sleep, they can’t do as well in school. “More than 80 percent of public schools start prior to 8:30 a.m., which doctors say robs teens of vital rest.” That’s a lot of schools! Not to mention that all those teenagers are suffering a loss of sleep. Some people may ask, ’Why do we need sleep?’ Well, when you are asleep, your brain is developing and getting stronger. In fact, a student that experiences exhaustion at a higher risk to have a health issue such as depression or a headache. Not to mention, student’s immune systems can