The Importance Of Sleep In Public Schools

Teenagers need about 8 to 9 hours of sleep, or else their bodies bodies will not grow and function properly. Which can sometimes even cause permanent problems in their futures. A huge problem facing schools districts and students is the lack of sleep some students get at night. When schools seem to be starting earlier and earlier, most students are getting less and less sleep around American schools. Students who do not get enough sleep are at a disadvantage to learning compared to students who can get the recommended amount of sleep. If nothing is done students will still be lacking the needed sleep. When that happens Only through people acknowledging the problem, and rethinking ideas, can the problem of students not getting enough sleep …show more content…
Many different people believe younger kids, such as elementary school, aren 't safe outside in the early morning because of how dark it is. For example, “It is often suggested that high school and elementary schools hours be flipped. . . Such proposals usually meet with huge public outcry about the dangers of having first graders standing outside waiting for buses at 6 a.m” (SSL, n.d., para. 11). In almost all cases where the times could change, different problems can pop up. As an investigator wrote, “. . .many school districts use the same buses to serve multiple schools. If the start times of some schools are delayed. . .the change would force other schools to start earlier in order to allow for all necessary busing to occur” …show more content…
All it takes is a few districts to change and most will follow. For example “Edina, MN school district in 1996 was first in U.S. to shift to a later start, based on medical research about sleep phase shift in teens” (Wahlstrom, 2014). After the change a study was conducted finding that, “Students in Edina reported statistically significant less depression compared with two similar districts” (Wahlstrom, 2014). Edina isnt the only district to have made the change in Minnesota. During the past 15 years a few other schools changed times such as Minneapolis Public Schools, Saint Paul, and Woodbury (SSL, n.d.). All of these ideas have been supported by an outstanding amount of data, coming from all around the country. Websites have been created to help educate people who are curious on the topic. Acording to debate.org about 60 precent of people beleive schools should start later (Debate.org, n.d.). A simple internet poll does not always give an accurate portrayal of a entire population, but it can still show a good correlation between a few and a group as a whole. Hopefully a domino effect will be started, and being to cause even more schools to change across the