Today in America students wake up feeling exhausted and have to rush to get ready and get to school on time. What would happen if school started just a little bit later to give students more time to sleep and get ready. Would this lower the number of students that are late every day and the number of students sleeping in class? To see how students and teachers feel about the current amount of sleep students are getting, I interviewed a student and teacher at Ipswich High School.

The student I Interviewed about his school night sleeping habits is Mike Connely. Starting off the interview, I asked him whether he thought that students are getting the necessary amount of sleep on school nights. He responded with, “It depends on the person, but I’m usually doing schoolwork or some other sort of work that keeps me up late.” I followed up by asking whether he thinks school should start a little bit later to give students more time to sleep? He responded with “Yes, I do think the school would see an increase in grades and attendance if they started school a little bit later.” The next thing I asked him was what time he thought would be a good time to start and still give students enough time in the morning. Mike responded that he thought “School should start around 8:30 to get students more time to sleep or get ready in the morning”. The last question I asked him was whether he thinks that the current time students must be up for school affects their ability to learn? He responded, “It can if the students not going to bed at a reasonable time.” 

The teacher that I interviewed was Mrs. Warner. I started my interview by asking her If she thinks schools should start a little bit later to give students more sleep? She responded with, “yes, but some students would stay up late and still not get enough sleep”. Following that question I asked her if she thinks there’d be an increase in grades with more time to sleep? She responded with “If the students took advantage of their extra time then yes there would probably be an increase”. With school starting so early I followed up with asking her at what time do you think school should start? She responded with “school should start at 8:15 to give the tardy students a little bit more time in the morning so the number of tardies can go down”. The next question I asked her to was if she thinks that the current time students must be up for school affects their ability to learn? She responded with “yes if they are tired in the classroom”. The final question I asked her was whether she thinks that if school started it would improve your ability to teach? She responded with “not necessarily but students may be more receptive.”

There are many different perspectives on whether students are getting enough sleep on school nights and whether it’s affecting their performance?. This article highlighted what a teacher and student felt about the starting time of school.