Should the School Day Start Later?

My topic is about how sleep deprivation results in serious, negative implications for society, both in the past and in present day. I will also study how sleep deprivation impacts students' performance in school and whether, due to increased pressure on students to be involved in extracurricular activities to gain college admission, the school day should begin later to allow students to obtain more sleep.

In my project, I will discuss historic events, such as the Challenger explosion, which occurred on January 28, 1986, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which occurred on April 26, 1986. Thus, my project will cover the time period from the 1980s to the present.

Learning about historical events and the reasons why things, such as the average start time for the school day, were initially established, can help shape the future. If we fail to take into account the reasons why the average start to the school day was set decades ago to determine if those reasons are still valid, we will continue to ignore the negative impact that such an early start to the school day has on students.

The major social science themes that I have discovered are that a culture will often resist change in favor of continuity. I have discovered that sleep deprivation has led to catastrophic historic events and Causes major negative impacts on students' health. Despite the fact that the average start to the school day was set at a time when most households had only one working parent, which is not the case today, the start time for school has not evolved to recognize the growing pressure on students to maintain good grades while participating in a wide array of extracurricular activities.

My purpose for researching this topic is to help spread awareness about how sleep deprivation can prevent people from being able to perform to their best abilities. With increased pressure on students to be involved in so many activities to be accepted into college, society may need to make adjustments so students can achieve physical and mental health.