No one likes waking up early in the morning, especially teenagers going to high school.

Science has proven that the early start times of high schools harm the students by lowering their grades and their attendance. High schools can see the positive effects on their students by pushing back start times for high school by as little as 30 minutes. The schools see an increase in attendance, decrease in tardiness and increase in grades.

A study conducted by Horacio de la Iglesia, a University of Washington professor of biology, shows the dramatic changes in performance when a high school student gets an additional 34 minutes of sleep per night.

The study focuses on the circadian rhythm of teenagers. All people have a biological component, called the circadian rhythm, that controls their body 24 hours a day.

Teenagers' bodies do not release melatonin until much later at night. This causes them to not fall asleep until later, which creates less time for sleep when they have to get up for school in the morning. In order to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep per night, teens would need to go to bed at 10 p.m., which is before their bodies release melatonin.

Seattle Public Schools announced that they will push back school start times by about an hour for high school students in order to accommodate the student’s needs. They also announced that elementary schools will begin school earlier to match that age’s circadian rhythm, going to bed early and waking up much earlier.

“Elementary schools started earlier, while most middle and all of the district’s 18 high schools shifted their opening bell almost an hour later — from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.,” wrote University of Washington author James Urton in the washington.edu news.

Based on multiple different research articles, including a research article by Dr. Kate E Storey published in the National Library of Medicine, many districts are beginning to see the benefits of pushing back start times for high school students. This is leading to the push back of start times in order to increase the overall health and wellness of students.

*For more information visit… https://www.washington.edu/news/2018/12/12/high-school-start-times-study/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7147704/