Why School Should Start Later and What Are The Benefits of It

Beep beep beep beep! Every single day kids are struggling to wake up for school in the morning. Often time they are being overworked and underfed. We can do way better as a population for the youth of our society. School should start later to prevent sleep deprivation, ensure breakfast, and enhance performance in youth. Sleep is one of the most important part of anyone's life.

Many studies from all over the world show that there is a developing problem with the inadequate amount of sleep the youth are getting at night. “There is a growing concern in relation to the problem of insufficient sleep... In the early 1990s a Congressionally mandated commission noted that insufficient sleep is a major contributor to catastrophic events...Adolescents appear to be among the most sleep-deprived populations in our society.” (Adolescent Sleep Patterns :

Biological, Social, And Psychological Influences). This is becoming a huge worry especially since sleep is so important for the health of the body and mind. “Sleep is crucial for healthy functioning. Absent, insufficient, or fragmented sleep has widespread neurobehavioral and physiological consequences.” (Sleep Deprivation And Disease ). Children who have such sleeping problems are more susceptible to develop depression and other mental disorders due to the impact it has on the brain. They are also more likely to get distracted during the day. “Sleep is required for growth, regaining strength, and thinking clearly… It affects every aspect of life, including learning, memory, mood, and behavior.” (Frequently Asked Questions About Sleep And

Sleep Deprivation ). Lack of sleep can cause a vicious cycle of stress for students. It makes them become irritable and impulsive. If they were to start school later students would get more sleep than usual and/or they could use it to do things like eat breakfast and finish school work.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Students barely have enough time to get ready in the morning as it is so it is not a surprise that many students choose to opt out of breakfast as well. “There was plenty of evidence, anecdotal and otherwise, to show that hungry children struggled to concentrate in lessons and were less likely to achieve than those who had come into school having eaten breakfast.” (Lepkowska 171-74).

A school in the United Kingdom set up a breakfast club and asked for their teachers’ observations of the students. The teachers could tell who had not eaten breakfast just from the students’ behavior and lack of initiative. “Within weeks of setting up our own breakfast club teachers started reporting better attention, improvements in behavior…[They] began to see their grades go up.” (Lepkowska 171-74). The children who chose to utilize the breakfast club had began to show significant improvement in class.

Starting school later would improve every aspect of life.

Starting school later would enhance students’ performance overall. With majority of the students using their delayed school times to sleep and eat breakfast it would result in the overall youth being successful. It is important for our youth to flourish in order for them to be ready for adulthood. It would conclude with great generations to come. The overall well-being of society would increase tremendously. “In order to address sleep deficits and the potential negative outcomes associated with chronic sleep deprivation, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) support delaying school start times for middle and highschool students.” (Setting adolescents up for success: promoting a policy to delay high school start times). There has been numerous studies around the world about the push back of school start times and all of them have concluded with positive feedback.

“The study strongly recommends that middle schools should consider delaying the school starting time by at least one hour. Such a change could enhance students' cognitive performance by improving their attention level, increasing rate of performance, as well as reducing their mistakes and impulsivity.” (Delaying school starting time by one hour: some effects on attention levels in adolescents.) Delaying school start times would drastically affect the entire community. Academic achievements would increase rapidly and attentiveness in school would improve.