In life, problems are presented every day; what should be done about the national debt, what should be done about North Korea spinning out of control? These problems typically all have a simple to complex answer. Whether the answer is easy or difficult; research is compiled and shows the positives and negatives leaving an answer to the problem. Likewise, it is no different with the question should high schools be starting later? Students are what fuel high schools, but high schools are taking the fuel from the kids.
A whopping ninety percent of high school students are sleep deprived in the US (National Sleep Foundation, n. pg. . Sleep deprivation has a significant amounts of negative side effects that affect student health. Delaying school an hour would help reduce the number of students who are sleep deprived. A later school start time in US high schools would lead to reduction in risky driving, improvement in student health, and lead to significantly better academic student performance. Although a later school start time sounds welcoming on the surface, there are some drawbacks. Parents of high schoolers say that a later start time would mess with their work schedules; complaining that they would then not be able to leave for work for another hour.
High schoolers range from fourteen to eighteen years old, and therefore should be able to stay home an hour without their parents. Coaches and leaders of groups say that it affects extracurricular activities. Even though there would have to be changes to extracurricular activities times, nothing should come before student health, and well being. When a student is sleep deprived they do not perform nearly close to their full potential, and thus not even satisfying their after school activities.
To begin, there is a reported one hundred thousand crashes, on average, each year due to “drowsiness”, and out of those one hundred thousand crashes, fifty five percent of the people involved say they fell asleep at the wheel (Garey n. pg. ). Most of those crashes could be avoided by simply starting school an hour later. To add, a student being sleep deprived is equivalent to having a . 08% blood alcohol level (Strauss, n. pg. ). When one has a . 08% blood alcohol level it is illegal to drive in most US states and thus students with sleep deprivation should be encouraged not to be driving.
With ninety percent of students being sleep deprived and driving on the roads early to school, there is an extremely high chance they will be involved in a car crash due to slowed reaction times and difficulty paying attention to the road. A later school start time would reduce the sleep deprivation levels in teens significantly, therefore reducing risky driving and less accidents. Starting schools later is an easy fix to an unnecessary problem. Most students who are sleep deprived are also hurting their physical health.
To continue, when pupils do not receive enough sleep during the night; they are putting themselves at risk physically for more than just a car accident. Although most people think of sleep as a luxury, “Research shows that getting enough sleep is a biological necessity … teens need on average 9 14 hours of sleep” (National Sleep Foundation n. pg. ). If sleep is a biological necessity that only about ten percent of students are getting, the other ninety percent will have an “increased risk of diabetes, obesity, depression, altered hormones levels and high blood pressure” (Morgan, n. pg. ).
These are health problems that could affect a student for their entire life, when all that is needed to be changed is a hour later start time. It is also not the students fault that they are not receiving enough sleep. Even if pupils try to go to bed on time their rapid changing bodies hold them back. Valerie Starauss, from the Washington Post, writes about why schools should not start until at least after 8:30 because “adolescents have unique sleep rhythms that make it harder to go to sleep and wake up early” (n. pg. ).
Mr. Strauss goes on to talk about teens’ brains and how they do not tend to go to bed until eleven p. . even if the student is in bed hours before that. The National Sleep Foundation backs up Mr. Stauss with a study done at Brown Univeristy talking about the melatonin levels in teens brains. The National Sleep Foundation states “melatonin secretions occurs at a later time in adolescents as they mature; thus, is difficult for them to go to sleep earlier in the night. The melatonin sections also turns off later in the morning which makes it harder to wake up” (n. pg). Therefore, even when students attempt to go to bed on time to receive the nine hours of sleep, their bodies hold them back.
Students are at an extremely high risk for multiple lifelong physical health problems that can all be prevented with an hour later school start time. As a result of these physical problems, their academics suffer too. Finally, with the majority of pupils being sleep deprived it has shown that their school work suffers as a consequence. During school, the students who are sleep deprived often have a hard time being able to “listen, learn, concentrate and solve problems. Students may also even forget important information like names, numbers, homework, dates” (Strauss, n. pg. ). As a result, students’ grades suffer.
The consequence, of students not performing to their ability, is they will not have the GPA that they could achieve on a full night’s sleep, and thus, hurting them when they go to apply for college. Mrs. Morgan found a study done by Mary Carskadon involving over 3,000 high school students throughout the US “they found that those who reported poor grades (C, D or F) reported getting twenty five fewer minutes of sleep than the students who reported getting A’s or B’s” (n. pg. ). This study is significant because it shows that even twenty-five more minutes could be the difference between a 3. GPA and a 2. 5 GPA.
The same study done by Mary Carskadon found “The poor performers also went to bed approximately forty minutes later than students who reported getting good grades” (Morgan, n. pg. ). The University of Minnesota backs up this study by finding “Investigators studied two different districts that changed their start time to 8:30 a. m. and 8:40 a. m. When compared with students attending schools with earlier start times, the students reported getting higher grades. They also had fewer depressive feelings, got more sleep on school nights and had less daytime sleepiness” (Morgan n. pg. ).
To conclude, because they’re a significant amount of studies done that prove that students fulfill their academic potential after a good night’s sleep rat ather than not receiving a full night’s sleep than there is a simple answer to what looks like a difficult problem. Starting school at least one hour later significantly improve students’ academic performance. Lastly, with the amount of hard evidence that proves later school start times reduces teen drowsy driving, reduces risky for physical problems, and reduces the chance that students will perform poorly in school, means there should be an easy answer to an extreme problem.
Although there are drawbacks to changing a school state time, the benefits greatly outweigh them. Greatly improving students academics will affect students for their whole life, as long as possible health problems due to lack of sleep. With any problem there is always a solution that is looked for, whether it be simple or more complex there is usually an answer. Whether a parent be looking into what kind of vitamins to get their kids or what kind of milk there is a always an answer.