This generation of teens has been wrongly labeled as ‘lazy’ because many struggle to wake up early for school. Practically every kid complains that because they have to get up so early in the morning, they lack the energy needed to get through the day and excel in school. This cannot possibly be because every kid in America is ‘lazy.’ A large majority of the adolescent population is sleep deprived due to how early school begins in the morning. There is a stigma that kids are able to wake up early and do well, they are just making the decision not to. This ignorance is a large reason why parents and other adults are often closed-minded about making school start times later in the morning. 

Parents and older generations tend to think that because they went to school early in the morning when they were young, their kids should do it as well. This simply isn’t the case. Even though start times have always been early, the repercussions that follow the early start times are beginning to make a sizeable impact on today’s youth. Over the years, academic curriculum has become more intense, homework volume has increased, and extra-curricular participation has become practically mandatory. In order to be considered a competitive applicant when applying for colleges and jobs, students must have good grades, extra-curricular activities, and previous work experience. There is not nearly enough time during the day to accomplish everything, so teens must resort to staying up late to complete all of their responsibilities. Most teens in middle and high school go to bed after 11 PM due to all of their other commitments. This leaves them with less than the recommended amount of time to sleep, and does not set them up for success during the school day. To alleviate the stress that the majority of teens are feeling due to lack of sleep, school start times need to be pushed back. If the overall dynamic of school has changed, and there are so much higher expectations of students now than twenty years ago, why haven’t our school start times changed also?

The Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota conducted a study on teens to determine how many hours of sleep they should be getting each night in order to maintain their performance in school. This study found that teens who slept less than eight hours were at significantly higher risks for depression, substance abuse, and lower grades (Shea). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only 26.5% of high school students get eight hours of sleep each night (Shea). This means that nearly 75% of teenagers are not getting enough sleep, and are therefore unable to live up to their highest potential in school. When kids do not get these precious hours of shut-eye each night, it opens the door to many more issues for students and schools alike. 

Some studies even argue that eight hours of sleep isn’t enough. A 2006 study conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that adolescents should sleep for nine hours and fifteen minutes each night (Winsler, 1). Even less of the teen population – 20% - hits this benchmark. This small percentage of healthy students showcases the obvious problem and how little of a priority students’ well-being is in the majority of school districts around the country. If students are unable to get sufficient amounts of sleep due to how early their classes begin, they can’t expect to test or perform the way in which they are expected.

While a decline in academic performance is the most obvious issue, there is a larger problem that comes with sleep deprivation. Teens that do not get enough sleep each night have significantly higher risks of acquiring developmental and sleep disorders. Adolescents have different biology than adults, which requires adolescents to get more sleep each night due to their still-developing brains. The more time that students are asleep, the more time their brains and bodies have to replenish what was depleted throughout the day. 

Lack of sleep in teens causes the circadian rhythm to become off-track, which is one of the biggest problems and has possibly the greatest effect. The circadian rhythm is often referred to as the “biological clock” and it is the system that allows our bodies to realize that we are ready to sleep, stay asleep, and wake up. If the circadian biological clock is altered, then the body is unable to regulate its sleep schedule properly because the body cannot replenish and release the proper hormones that are attributed to feeling tired or alert, causing teens to feel fatigued at “irregular” times (Mastin). 

Genevieve Gariepy, post-doctoral student at McGill University and lead author of a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, concluded that when teenagers go through puberty, their circadian systems get “delayed by two to three hours” (McGill University). This shift thus does not allow the adolescent body to prepare for sleep until 11 PM, making it difficult for students to wake up before 8 AM (McGill University). Pre-pubescent children may get tired around 8 or 9 PM, but teens are virtually unable to fall asleep before 11 PM, by no fault of their own. This is because changes in circadian rhythm regulation lead to increases in melatonin secretion (Carissimi, 1401). Middle and high school students always seem to be tired due to this excess of melatonin in their systems. Their biology is changing, and schools need to understand this and create ways to help their students during this already stressful part of their lives. If adolescents are supposed to have nine hours of sleep, wake up at 6 AM to get ready for school at 7:30 AM, but also fall asleep at 11 PM the night before, something needs to change. We can’t change adolescents’ biology, but we have the ability to change the school start times.

Studies show that when schools start after 8 AM, students are able to get ample amounts of sleep and are happier and higher-achieving. Schools that start before 8 AM have students that, on average, perform up to 1% worse in math and 2% worse in reading (Edwards). When schools start later, test scores improve, and we start to see gaps narrowing in regards to student achievement overall (Edwards). Even though this has been proven in multiple studies, only 20% of schools currently start after 8 AM. Even fewer schools, 17.7%, start after 8:30 AM (Fox). Because the majority of middle and high schools in America start as early as they do, today’s youth is being set up to fail. When we start expecting young adults to do the impossible, this problem becomes an ethical issue.

In America, schools whose students get less than eight to nine hours of sleep each night due to early start times tend to also have students with lower test scores, lower graduation rates, increases in depression, and increases in substance use and abuse (Winsler, 3-11). While there is little to no information that states that starting schools later will cause significant harm to students’ overall well-being, the main reason why change has yet to be made is because starting later is very expensive. Changing the start times of public schools drastically could cost millions of dollars for taxpayers because bus drivers will likely be working more hours and more hectic bus routes. By keeping the start times for middle and high school students before 8 AM, schools save 30% more than schools who start after 8 AM (Shea). Many schools want to make the switch, but they simply cannot afford to do so. This should not, however, be the reason that schools refuse to change their start times. 

When schools, such as the Glens Falls School District in Glens Falls, NY, change their start times by forty minutes, the positive effect it has on students is clear (Shea). The success of the Glens Falls students is evidence that changing the start times, no matter what the price, is “worth the hassle,” according to superintendent Paul Jenkins (Shea). One study, conducted by Finley Edwards on the Wake County Public School System, even concluded that there was a 2.2% increase in math scores and a 1.5% improvement in reading scores amongst students when the school start time was pushed back an hour (Edwards). If graduation rates, test scores and overall student happiness will improve, the money being spent will be worth it in the end.

Unfortunately, many schools argue that the money is not worth their students’ well-being. Even though many school districts that are stuck in their primitive ways refuse to look at changing the times of school, there is actually a way around their argument, proving that millions of dollars do not need to be spent to give students more time to sleep. While moving the school start times back suddenly and drastically would likely cost millions, moving high schools and middle schools back twenty minutes and moving elementary schools back ten minutes would cost absolutely nothing. In Maryland, after the superintendent Joshua Starr of Montgomery County Schools proposed moving the high school start time by fifty minutes to help students get more time to sleep, they found that it would cost $21 million a year to make that change (Fox). By simply switching the times around and moving the elementary, middle, and high schools to start later in the morning by twenty minutes, the district does not have to pay bus drivers anything extra and teenage students are able to sleep twenty minutes longer, benefitting their health and education (Fox). While this only moved the start times for high school students to 7:45 AM, and 8:15 AM for middle school students, this is a step in the right direction. If every five years there is a twenty-minute shift in the school start times, which would still maintain the current transportation costs, in fifteen years all high schools in America could be starting after 8 AM. 

If individual counties and school districts are dead-set on making immediate changes and can commit to serious budgeting in other places such as community events or sports team apparel, and possible rises in taxes, they can dedicate more money to fund the transportation costs of bussing students later in the day to school. On the other hand, if schools are able to dedicate their time to making gradual changes over the next fifteen or so years, there don’t even have to be huge budget cuts. Changes can be made without rises in taxes and millions of dollars in transportation costs, it will just take time and dedication by the school systems. Once other school districts become aware that gradual changes over time can realistically make a difference and produce happier, higher achieving students, more places will start making the change to later start times. 

On another note, a 2001 study showed that the main reason why school administrators would rather start school earlier in the day is because of the effect it might have on extra-curricular activities after classes end (Anderson). These administrators believe that pushing the school start times back would leave less time for sports, extra-curricular activities and other commitments after school. While administrators tend to fixate on this issue, there wouldn’t be much of a disturbance to the existing structure of after-school activities by moving back the start times slightly. If a high school in Alabama starts at 7:40 AM and the school district decides to move it back to 8 AM to give its students an extra few minutes of sleep, like the Glen Falls schools, students’ academic performance and mental stability would improve, and their after-school activities would only have to be moved back twenty minutes. Finishing soccer practice at 6:20 PM rather than 6 PM is not going to create any major problems for students or faculty. This is just another excuse used by administrators to disregard their students’ need for more sleep.

The counter-argument also includes that the earlier start times are more convenient for parents’ work schedules (Anderson). Some would argue that if the start times were made to be later, that parents would have to shift around their entire work schedule to drop their kids off at school. This is simply not true. Changing school start times by twenty or thirty minutes is not going to cause a parent to lose their job. If the change in a child’s schedule, due to their school time changing slightly, is communicated to a parent’s employer, a conflict can be easily avoided. In addition, this argument only accounts for a small percentage of parents. Only 10-14% of parents drive their kids to school in the mornings, so even if changing the start times did make a small impact on parents’ work schedule, it would not affect a large amount of families.

In order to solve the problem of sleep deprivation and help middle school and high school students be more attentive and higher achieving in school, the start times need to change nationwide. Although this is easier said than done, and many opposing parties would say, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” change is needed to benefit today’s generation of students and generations to come. If changes can be made to middle and high school start times to allow students to get at least 9 hours of sleep each night, there will be increases in happiness, lower depression and suicide rates, higher test scores and more motivated students overall. School districts must invest in the youth of today to help them in their quest of education so that students are able to succeed and excel in their future endeavors.
