Have you ever thought about having a later start time for school and if it would be beneficial to students? Many students find it difficult to focus during class due to their lack of sleep and how early they have to get up for school. The early start time is a reason for lack of sleep for a lot of students. Some students stay up late working on school work and then have to wake up early to go to school.  Teens across the globe are complaining every day about their school start times being way too early because it is hard to wake up.  Teen tiredness is now considered to be a public health pandemic. School starting at a later time is beneficial because it helps students catch up on sleep. The increased amount of sleep in turn helps students’ ability to learn. 

School should start later because it will help students catch up on sleep. “Sleep deprivation has become virtually an epidemic among American teenagers. Research suggests that adolescents require about 8.5  to 9 hours of sleep, but according to the National Sleep Foundation, only 14% achieve this goal.” said Julie Peorgers from The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter. Many students say they often feel like they are not taking in as much as they could from their first few classes because of being tired in the morning. Avery Brown, a sophomore at Ipswich High School, said in an interview that she “cannot focus in first period class because of how early it is and more sleep in the morning would help [her] be more focused.” 

Overall, a later start time is better for one’s health.  In order for your body to grow and develop you have to get enough sleep. If you do not get enough sleep it will lower the immune system and increase one’s chances of getting ill.  Also, if school starts later, you will be able to have a proper and healthy breakfast. A lot of students cannot eat that early in the morning or just do not have time. Eating breakfast is important for students because with their growing bodies and developing brains, they need regular refueling often from food. When kids skip breakfast, they don’t get what they need to be at their best in school and at home.  

But, there are cons to school starting later. Gianna Lang brought up a good point in our interview. She said, “Starting later will make us get out later. For people with after school activities we will get home even later and will have homework to do later at night and still be going to bed late so more sleep in the mornings will not do anything extra.” This is also what Waikato Times says. “If students were to be pampered by a late school start, we would get a rather big shock when, further down the track, our employers would expect us to begin work at 8am. There are also a large quantity of students who have after school jobs and due to late start late release school days they will not be able to put in as many hours as they would if the school hours were left alone. Students are also involved in sports that require after school practices. School getting out later means that practices will run later too. This would leave students less time  to complete homework, not to mention the students who live out of town and have a long drive to get home.” So a later start time would have health benefits, but will it actually do anything and outweigh the  cons that play a role here and actually make a difference to students’ mornings?