High School Start Time Research Paper

Pediatrician Dr. Maida Chen at Seattle Children’s Hospital treats 90% of her teenage patients for chronic sleep loss attributed to high schools’ early start times (Reddy). Although most teenagers are not admitted into a hospital for their drowsiness, high school students do suffer from insufficient sleep. Because of the long hours spent finishing homework, participating in extracurricular activities and sports, and socializing with family and friends, the majority of students do not receive an adequate amount of sleep on a typical school night, causing them to be more stressed and less healthy. High schools should begin later in the morning to ensure that teenagers get adequate sleep, which consequently increases students’ health, focus, academic success, and happiness. High school students are suffering from sleep deprivation due to early school start times. In order to function properly, teenagers require about 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep each night, yet 68% of students sleep less than eight hours on a school night (Bratis), which over a week results in a lack of necessary sleep. Sleep deficiency is detrimental to health; chronic sleep loss in teenagers has been connected to obesity and weakened immune systems (Brown). After puberty, high school students are likely to gain weight and have altered
A later start time benefits not only health and academics but physical safety of teenagers driving to school. Many students drive to school before sunrise when they are the least alert and there is poor visibility. A Kentucky high school that made the change had a drop of 16% in reported student car crashes (“Parents of Sleep-Deprived Teens Push For Later School Start Times”). Accidents can even decrease up to 70%, as was the case with a study consisting of eight schools (Chen). Even an hour change could reduce the needless deaths associated with student drowsy