Slickthellama
01-12-2004, 08:57 PM
Should highschools start later than they currently do?
PLEASE!! I NEED YOUR ADVISE! SO PLZ READDDDDDDDD
NOTE: NOT REVISED!
As I awake day by day it is the same feeling every day. I feel nothing but sleepy. And I go to bed at 11:00. I typically wake up at around 7:00. This gives me about eight hours of sleep. Which is a little under the recommended amount; but still better than most of my fellow high-school teens. A recent survey done by Jon Gole found that over 89% of teens feel like they are not getting enough sleep because they feel tired throughout the school day.
My proposal is to move back the school day so it would start at 9:40 and end at 4:21. I believe that starting the school day closer to the afternoon will allow teens to feel fully rested. During an interview with Mrs. Lang (mathematics teacher) she had noted that she thought that kids would go to bed later if the school day started later. I think she is right; some students would go to bed later. But there are also the students who would go to bed at the exact same time every night, and continue to do so. Recall in the beginning that I stated I always go to bed at 11:00; I would now assuming I got up at 9:00 get about ten hours of sleep. This is about the optimum amount of sleep.
If late start were to be applied, AHS would need to bring in some sleep experts to come in and educate teens on the dangers of regular lack of sleep. Teens need to be educated on time management. If teens could be more responsible they could easily manage having a sport start at 5:00(PM). Teachers seem to think that students at AHS would not have enough time for after school activities; given that school ends at 4:21. I think the notion of this is ludicrous. Most afterschool activites don’t go for more than three hours. Even if an activity were to go three hours you would still get out at 8:00 if it started at 5:00. Eight o’ clock, that leaves three hours for homework and such. If they get to bed at 11:00, and wake up at 8:00, they still have gotten nine hours sleep. So as you can see I think that people are just to lazy to try and rearrange their schedules and try something new.
Many feel that this whole idea is a big long shot, but it has been done. Edina, a Minneapolis area suburban school district, tried changing start times from 7:20 to 8:40. Parents were happy that their kids would be getting more sleep, but were concerned about after school activities. It turned out that at the end of the study, “92 percent of respondents on a survey for Edina high school parents indicated that they preferred the later start times.” [Wahlstorm, 3].
Lack of sleep not only has an effect on school work, but it has also been linked to depression in teens, trouble relating to peers and parents, and use of alchohol and drugs. It is no mystery why teens often sleep in first and second hours, the teenage brain naturally wants to go to bed later and rise later. It is just the way the mind operates at this age. I know first hand how tired and apathetic teens are in first and second hour. It is almost as if these hours are wasted because students are just so bloody tired in the morning due to natural sleep paterns. It is worthwhile to note that I don’t believe my policy of 9:40 is written in stone. Even a one hour late start would be fine with me. Because progress can sometimes be slow. [Wahlstorm, 2]
The reason most teens go to bed so late, is that we naturally want to go to bed at later times and get up at later times. “Medical researchers found this cycle is part of the maturation of the endocrine system. From the onset of puberty until late teen years, the brain chemical melatonin, which is responsible for sleepiness, is secreted from approximately 11 p.m. until approximately 8 a.m., nine hours later. This secretion is based on human circadian rhythms and is rather fixed. In other words, typical youth are not able to fall asleep much before 11 p.m. and their brains will remain in sleep mode until about 8 a.m., regardless of what time they go to bed.” [Wahlstorm, 1] This makes a lot of sense to me. It is very hard for me to go to bed before 11:00. I would be willing to bet that a lot of teens feel the same way I do, not even tired before 11:00. I am fortunate enough to take my showers at night thereby spending less time up in the morning and getting more sleep. It is hard for adults to understand this but I could get ten hours sleep, and get up at 7:00AM and I would feel totally wiped. But if I get eight hours of sleep and wake up at 9:00AM I would feel totally refreshed and on top of the world. And I know this from first hand experience of sleep times on weekends.
I believe that teens feel so sleep in the beginning of school that they do not participate, do not actively listen, and do not do much besides sleep in the first two hours. This is thought to be a result of the body trying to fill the sleep void of an hour with two hours of attempted sleep. Mrs. Lang reported that she saw significantly more sleepy students in her first two hours than in the rest of the day. I believe this is as a result of said problem. If the TSD would move the schedule back two hours, even one, this would allow for teens to get the precious one missing hour of sleep that they need. This would more than likely result in immediate overall GPA increase in the student body due to increased alertness during school.
Another major problem brought to my attention by Mrs. Lang is that we would need to move back all the school times, this isn’t necessarily true. We could switch the start times of the elementary schools and go the other way around. With the elementary kids starting at ~7:40, as they need less sleep than teens and tend to be early risers. This would allow for bus schedules to be just simply inverted, switching around the elementary and high school bus schedules. This is totally do-able.
I feel that the primary goal of a school is to provide the best education for their students. School administrators and counselors should be much more willing to take steps to allow students at least one hour of additional sleep. Admins are fully willing to take steps to see that students don’t arrive late to class, or absent, but it seems fully ok for students to be absent minded due to lack of sleep. This makes no sense to me.
Another study conducted in Minnesota proved further that later start times have brilliant recourses. Students from three different districts were polled on sleep habits. District A was then moved back to a later start time of about one hour later than normal. “High school students in District A report not going to bed much later than students at the two other demographically similar schools, while they get up roughly an hour later. That is, students in District A, as a group, are getting a full hour more sleep than students at the two similar schools with earlier start times. This difference in amount of sleep was found to be related to students' reports of how they feel and perform during the school day. District A students reported less overall sleepiness, less daytime sleepiness, less erratic sleep behaviors, and less depressive feelings and behaviors when compared to students in the early start time schools. Students in District A reported getting higher grades. The observed effects appear, to some extent, to be related to simply getting more sleep.” [Wahlstrom] You can’t argue with results.
Are the students of Athens High School ready to start school later? It would most definitely require better time management. But this is something that most teens will need to learn eventually anyway. I think most teens are smart enough to be able to manage their time even when the day is foreshortened. Students participating in previously mentioned sleep study found that even though their day was shortened they still found it easy to participate in extra curricular activities and get homework done. However students with after school jobs did report significantly less time to work a job.
Early start times do not only affect teens at school. Sometimes teens are disrespectfull and or rude to parents because they are simply too tired to function properly. So they have bad attitudes and sometimes become depressed due to lack of sleep. It seems to me that this is surely worth the costs to help depression.
Lack of sleep has become an epidemic. Chernobyl, the Challenger disaster and the Exxon Valdiz oil spill were all linked to severe cases of sleep deprivation. [CNN SLEEP STUDY] Obviously teenage sleep deprivation won’t cause disasters like this. But lack of sleep in teens has been linked to car accidents.
To wrap things up I would just like to say that humans need sleep. It is a given fact. Also a given fact is that teens need more sleep. Teens also have different sleep patterns than adults. It must be hard for adults to grasp this; but it is nothing but the truth. As it stands right now, teens aren’t getting enough sleep. Either we let this problem go on forever or we do something about it. Now where we go from here I leave up to you. But these are the facts.
This report is The work of Clark G. and is not for reproduction. With works cited from
CNN Health “Lack of Sleep America’s Top Health Problem”
March 17, 1997
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9703/17/nfm/sleep.deprivation/
Wahlstrom, Kyla. “Later start times for high school students”
June 2002
http://education.umn.edu/research/ResearchWorks/sleep.htm
Wahlstrom, Kyla
http://education.umn.edu/CAREI/Programs/Start_time/VIIexec_summ.html
Surveys done by Jon G with permission (thanks jon:D )
And an interview with mrs lang.
PLEASE!! I NEED YOUR ADVISE! SO PLZ READDDDDDDDD
NOTE: NOT REVISED!
As I awake day by day it is the same feeling every day. I feel nothing but sleepy. And I go to bed at 11:00. I typically wake up at around 7:00. This gives me about eight hours of sleep. Which is a little under the recommended amount; but still better than most of my fellow high-school teens. A recent survey done by Jon Gole found that over 89% of teens feel like they are not getting enough sleep because they feel tired throughout the school day.
My proposal is to move back the school day so it would start at 9:40 and end at 4:21. I believe that starting the school day closer to the afternoon will allow teens to feel fully rested. During an interview with Mrs. Lang (mathematics teacher) she had noted that she thought that kids would go to bed later if the school day started later. I think she is right; some students would go to bed later. But there are also the students who would go to bed at the exact same time every night, and continue to do so. Recall in the beginning that I stated I always go to bed at 11:00; I would now assuming I got up at 9:00 get about ten hours of sleep. This is about the optimum amount of sleep.
If late start were to be applied, AHS would need to bring in some sleep experts to come in and educate teens on the dangers of regular lack of sleep. Teens need to be educated on time management. If teens could be more responsible they could easily manage having a sport start at 5:00(PM). Teachers seem to think that students at AHS would not have enough time for after school activities; given that school ends at 4:21. I think the notion of this is ludicrous. Most afterschool activites don’t go for more than three hours. Even if an activity were to go three hours you would still get out at 8:00 if it started at 5:00. Eight o’ clock, that leaves three hours for homework and such. If they get to bed at 11:00, and wake up at 8:00, they still have gotten nine hours sleep. So as you can see I think that people are just to lazy to try and rearrange their schedules and try something new.
Many feel that this whole idea is a big long shot, but it has been done. Edina, a Minneapolis area suburban school district, tried changing start times from 7:20 to 8:40. Parents were happy that their kids would be getting more sleep, but were concerned about after school activities. It turned out that at the end of the study, “92 percent of respondents on a survey for Edina high school parents indicated that they preferred the later start times.” [Wahlstorm, 3].
Lack of sleep not only has an effect on school work, but it has also been linked to depression in teens, trouble relating to peers and parents, and use of alchohol and drugs. It is no mystery why teens often sleep in first and second hours, the teenage brain naturally wants to go to bed later and rise later. It is just the way the mind operates at this age. I know first hand how tired and apathetic teens are in first and second hour. It is almost as if these hours are wasted because students are just so bloody tired in the morning due to natural sleep paterns. It is worthwhile to note that I don’t believe my policy of 9:40 is written in stone. Even a one hour late start would be fine with me. Because progress can sometimes be slow. [Wahlstorm, 2]
The reason most teens go to bed so late, is that we naturally want to go to bed at later times and get up at later times. “Medical researchers found this cycle is part of the maturation of the endocrine system. From the onset of puberty until late teen years, the brain chemical melatonin, which is responsible for sleepiness, is secreted from approximately 11 p.m. until approximately 8 a.m., nine hours later. This secretion is based on human circadian rhythms and is rather fixed. In other words, typical youth are not able to fall asleep much before 11 p.m. and their brains will remain in sleep mode until about 8 a.m., regardless of what time they go to bed.” [Wahlstorm, 1] This makes a lot of sense to me. It is very hard for me to go to bed before 11:00. I would be willing to bet that a lot of teens feel the same way I do, not even tired before 11:00. I am fortunate enough to take my showers at night thereby spending less time up in the morning and getting more sleep. It is hard for adults to understand this but I could get ten hours sleep, and get up at 7:00AM and I would feel totally wiped. But if I get eight hours of sleep and wake up at 9:00AM I would feel totally refreshed and on top of the world. And I know this from first hand experience of sleep times on weekends.
I believe that teens feel so sleep in the beginning of school that they do not participate, do not actively listen, and do not do much besides sleep in the first two hours. This is thought to be a result of the body trying to fill the sleep void of an hour with two hours of attempted sleep. Mrs. Lang reported that she saw significantly more sleepy students in her first two hours than in the rest of the day. I believe this is as a result of said problem. If the TSD would move the schedule back two hours, even one, this would allow for teens to get the precious one missing hour of sleep that they need. This would more than likely result in immediate overall GPA increase in the student body due to increased alertness during school.
Another major problem brought to my attention by Mrs. Lang is that we would need to move back all the school times, this isn’t necessarily true. We could switch the start times of the elementary schools and go the other way around. With the elementary kids starting at ~7:40, as they need less sleep than teens and tend to be early risers. This would allow for bus schedules to be just simply inverted, switching around the elementary and high school bus schedules. This is totally do-able.
I feel that the primary goal of a school is to provide the best education for their students. School administrators and counselors should be much more willing to take steps to allow students at least one hour of additional sleep. Admins are fully willing to take steps to see that students don’t arrive late to class, or absent, but it seems fully ok for students to be absent minded due to lack of sleep. This makes no sense to me.
Another study conducted in Minnesota proved further that later start times have brilliant recourses. Students from three different districts were polled on sleep habits. District A was then moved back to a later start time of about one hour later than normal. “High school students in District A report not going to bed much later than students at the two other demographically similar schools, while they get up roughly an hour later. That is, students in District A, as a group, are getting a full hour more sleep than students at the two similar schools with earlier start times. This difference in amount of sleep was found to be related to students' reports of how they feel and perform during the school day. District A students reported less overall sleepiness, less daytime sleepiness, less erratic sleep behaviors, and less depressive feelings and behaviors when compared to students in the early start time schools. Students in District A reported getting higher grades. The observed effects appear, to some extent, to be related to simply getting more sleep.” [Wahlstrom] You can’t argue with results.
Are the students of Athens High School ready to start school later? It would most definitely require better time management. But this is something that most teens will need to learn eventually anyway. I think most teens are smart enough to be able to manage their time even when the day is foreshortened. Students participating in previously mentioned sleep study found that even though their day was shortened they still found it easy to participate in extra curricular activities and get homework done. However students with after school jobs did report significantly less time to work a job.
Early start times do not only affect teens at school. Sometimes teens are disrespectfull and or rude to parents because they are simply too tired to function properly. So they have bad attitudes and sometimes become depressed due to lack of sleep. It seems to me that this is surely worth the costs to help depression.
Lack of sleep has become an epidemic. Chernobyl, the Challenger disaster and the Exxon Valdiz oil spill were all linked to severe cases of sleep deprivation. [CNN SLEEP STUDY] Obviously teenage sleep deprivation won’t cause disasters like this. But lack of sleep in teens has been linked to car accidents.
To wrap things up I would just like to say that humans need sleep. It is a given fact. Also a given fact is that teens need more sleep. Teens also have different sleep patterns than adults. It must be hard for adults to grasp this; but it is nothing but the truth. As it stands right now, teens aren’t getting enough sleep. Either we let this problem go on forever or we do something about it. Now where we go from here I leave up to you. But these are the facts.
This report is The work of Clark G. and is not for reproduction. With works cited from
CNN Health “Lack of Sleep America’s Top Health Problem”
March 17, 1997
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9703/17/nfm/sleep.deprivation/
Wahlstrom, Kyla. “Later start times for high school students”
June 2002
http://education.umn.edu/research/ResearchWorks/sleep.htm
Wahlstrom, Kyla
http://education.umn.edu/CAREI/Programs/Start_time/VIIexec_summ.html
Surveys done by Jon G with permission (thanks jon:D )
And an interview with mrs lang.