Reasons Why Should School Start Later?

Improved Essays
Less Likely: Reasons Why Schools Should Start Later
Most students go to school early, come home longing for sleep, and stay up long hours into the night doing homework. However, this is detrimental to their health and performance. Many school boards assume that tired teenagers are just part of the high school experience. They do not see sleep deprived teenagers as being a big enough problem to change the school start times. On the other hand, many sleep experts recommend that schools begin later because teenagers require more sleep and naturally have a different sleep cycle. Many benefits occur because of later school start times. For this reason, school start times should be delayed.
If high schools’ start time were delayed students would
…show more content…
As Richter puts it, “Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood that teenagers will suffer a myriad [of] negative consequences, including...thoughts of suicide and suicide attempts.” In other words, Richter believes that teenagers can more easily become hopeless when sleep deprived. In addition, a lack of sleep can lead to mood problems. Richter agrees when she writes, “Sleep is believed to help regulate many emotions, and its deprivation is an underlying component of many mood disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and mood disorders.” Richter believes that without adequate sleep teenagers are left with little control over their emotions. These studies show that teenagers feel a wide and chaotic swing of emotions without enough …show more content…
One way to negate bus costs is to have public schools use public transportation, if needed, to get to school later. Salt Lake Tribune writer Kristen Moulton writes, “The district more recently solved transportation troubles by giving high school students public transportation passes” (Moulton). Moulton urges deciding schools to consider public transportation as an option when considering costs of regular school buses. The required money is worth spending for many reasons, and there are also many other ways to negate the monetary

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Should School Start Later?

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages

    by Justin O’Neill, “Sleepy Teens: High School Should Start Later in the Morning” by Mark Fischetti, and “Hey You! Wake Up!” by Matthew Hutson, schools all over America are split on the topic of making their start time later. While some experts say that a later starting time is better for the school and students, some argue that it is definitely not. Teenagers need about nine hours of sleep a night, but on weekdays, only about 14 percent of them get the amount of sleep that they need.…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Should School Start Later For Teens? Everyone morning, teens across America must wake up early for school. However, what some people do not realize is that teens are not getting enough sleep, but is absolutely vital that they do. The best solution for this is starting school later because not only are teens not getting enough sleep, but schools should also start later because starting school earlier encourages irregular sleep patterns and it is difficult for them to wake up and go to sleep earlier.…

    • 765 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Why Start School

    • 1592 Words
    • 6 Pages

    One reason is because students, teens especially, need more sleep. Studies have shown that teenagers need the most sleep and they usually don’t get half of what they’re body needs. Another reason, stemming from lack of sleep, is health issues. Students can develop several health issues from lack of sleep such as and not limited to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, ADHD, and other issues as well. Another logical reason is because starting school later would save elementary schools and high schools thousands upon thousands of dollars.…

    • 1592 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Teens need 8.5-9.25 hour of sleep each night,⅔ of them get less than 7 hours of sleep, 33 percent of teen report falling asleep in school, 43 percent of U.S. public High School start before 8:00 am. Irregular sleeping patterns affect number of endocrine, metabolic, and neurological functions that are critical to maintain a healthy life. The increase in academic demands,and growing social and recreational opportunities,all of which take place in spite of no change in rise time for school. Sleep deprivation has caused tragedy in the past; public health consequences of working at night,and sleep disorders are just the tip of the iceberg. Of course school should start later.it affects the way we start the day because if we start too early we become tired and not focused throughout the day,we dont focus we will not learn and therefore need to…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On the radio the other day there was a big debate of Mississippi Talk Radio concerning high school students and should they be allowed to start school later in the morning. The New York Times had a three page article on that very subject. The title of the piece written by Jan Hoffman is, To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In. ”1 At first I wasn’t sure if the article meant sleep in class or sleep at home.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of Megan McLaughlin 's main issue of concern is school start times. However, during this past year, she was successful in pushing back High School start times around an hour later. Ms. McLaughlin had been an advocate of later school start times for many years, seeing that she has 3 sons, who all attended Woodson. Later sleep times are important for many reasons.…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    All middle and High schools should start the educational day later to allow the adequate amount of sleep for America’s teenage youth. Too many schools across the country begin the day before student minds are awake, alert, and ready to successfully take on the day. Students from the sixth to twelfth grade are currently attending school before their brains have had time to prepare for the day. This makes everything they do, including simple everyday tasks, far more of a challenge than it typically should be. Oftentimes, teenagers, as well as society as a whole, put sleep on the backburner.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are many benefits that come along with this simple change. Many experts agree that schools should start later, and there are many strong reasons why. With attention to school benefits, later start times for schools improve test scores. A study conducted by the University of Minnesota, that included 9,000 high schoolers, showed that test scores went up significantly the more the school…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some might argue students shouldn't start school later because it could make classes shorter. While this could be true, school ending time can be pushed back to accommodate an…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Do you think that school should start later? I think school should start later. As a middle schooler, I see some students sleeping in class. I can tell that students aren’t getting enough sleep at night.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Does your teenager wake feeling drowsy and powerless—repeatedly clicking the snooze button, and before you know it, they’re late for school? You’re not alone. Roughly 40% of American high schools are opening their doors before 8 a.m. People are debating whether starting school earlier is a good idea, or if it could interfere with other after-school clubs and sports. The benefits of schools starting later in the morning far outweighs these concerns, as it allows teens the necessary resting time which their developing bodies require, it makes life easier for parents in dealing with grumpy, sleep-deprived children, and it provides many notable health and academic benefits. The first supporting reason for pushing back the starting school bell is that it gives students more sleeping time, which they absolutely need to function at full capacity in school.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Would you want to start school later? I would want to start later and so does a lot of people. There are 78% that want to start later and 22% that do not want to start later. Also studies have shown that school should start later. Also right now just 15 percent of high schools start at 8:30 or later, and 40 percent start before 8 a.m.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When teenagers get cars, they need to be able to pay for the gas, insurance and other expenses. Therefore, they need to get a job. However, to handle a job and your schoolwork is tricky. Having that extra hour, students could have time to relax and wouldn't feel as rushed to do everything they have to do. Another argument against having schools start later is that there would be no time for after school programs.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are a lot of good effects if school started later. Many teenagers would agree that getting up early in the morning is stressful. School should start later because students would be more focused and less stressed and get better grades and have less of a chance of getting depression with more sleep. We will be arguing that school will start later in the morning. One reason schools should start later is that students can get extra sleep.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    If students start earlier then they get to leave earlier (classroom.synonym.com). This opinion is false because even if school will still begin at the same time as usual and kids will still be tired. Even if school did start earlier it would not be worth it for kids and teenagers because they need more sleep, which would mean they would need to go to bed earlier in the evening to get in a full eight hours. With sports, homework and other activities it is not possible for kids to go to bed early enough to get up in the morning. This would only be more harmful, even if it meant getting to leave school earlier.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays