Should School Start Later?
11/13/23
By: Emerson Kester
You wake up to your alarm clock going off like crazy, and you sluggishly get ready for school. Because you were tired you accidentally left your homework at home! You get to school and it’s Wednesday, so you head to your first period without the homework. You finish the day ok but you are stressed. You have a sport after school, so you have to stay up late to get more homework done, then you are tired the next day!
Most of us would agree that school should start later and I personally would love it if we could sleep more. 52% of all the people who did a form said that they feel tired when they come to school, 32% said sometimes, and 8% said barely, and 8% of people said they aren't tired! Which technically means 92% are tired, Yeah, we definitely need more sleep. In California they have changed the time middle schoolers come to school so they can sleep in later. And come in regulated! I think we should also have later school.
As we are becoming teens there is more pressure on us than before. And more times than others we feel too sluggish to do anything in school if we don't get the sleep we need. In California, schools are starting later, and the start times seem to be working as expected. The kids are getting the sleep they need there and here in Indiana we are not. Sleep plays an important role in our everyday lives and if we don't get enough of it then our brains can become stressed and slow. In my opinion it is very important to us that school starts later.
For many years, scientists have done studies that have shown that teen sleep cycles are delayed by as much as 2 to 3 hours, leading them to naturally fall asleep later and wake up later. And when school starts, it’s easy to see how an early school start time can mess with what they naturally do. Add that to a growing concern over depression and teen stress and what is called a mental health crisis, the later school start times seem to be a needed part of the puzzle to help kids be healthy and regulated.
Thirteen-year-old Robert Greenway told his local CBS that he was enjoying the new California routine before school. “Last school year, it was more like get up, rush, rush, rush. Like you’re tired,” he says. Robert’s mom, Christine, says, “They’re zombies in the morning and then it’s very stressful to try to get them up.” (https://sleepopolis.com)
As we enter middle school we are still adjusting to the change and 8-12 year olds (you come to middle school at around 11) need 9–12 hours per 24 hours of sleep; not everyone has that “luxury” to sleep that much! Maggie Johnson A 6th grader at EJHS says, “I think it should start at least an hour later. But that would have to change a lot of Edgewood." and I agree we would have to make a change but it would make things go a whole lot smoother in our daily lives.
Author Bio: Emerson (Emi) Kester is an 11 year old girl who loves dogs, swimming, and sleeping 🙂