Early School Start Times Research Paper

Words: 805
Pages: 4

According to “www.sleepfoundation.org”, 60% of adolescents in school complained about being tired during the school day, and 15% said they fell asleep in class. This is just one of the pieces of evidence that proves adolescents in middle and high school don’t get enough sleep. Teens sleep deficits seem to be caused by the early school start times, such as 7:25 AM, which is the time Kaneland Harter Middle School starts. However, this defies the adolescents sleep and wake patterns, which is go to sleep at around 10:00 PM, and wake up at around 8:00 AM. Since the early school start times cause sleep deprivation for teens, school start times should be later for Kaneland due to mental and physical health deficits, poor academic performance, and overall safety.

Mental and physical health deficits are one of the major consequences of early school start times. According to the “American Academy of Sleep Medicine”, (AASM), sleep deprivation causes anxiety, irritability, lack of motivation, and symptoms of depression. The AASM also proved that lack of
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For instance, since sleep deprivation can cause distractibility, it can lead to car crashes or injuries in sports, whether it isn’t paying attention on the road or in the game. According to “www.sleepingresources.com”, driving crashes caused by teenagers had sleep deprivation as a major reason to why the driving crashes happened. Due to the teens sleep deficit, more than 100,000 crashes per year involving teens show signs of drowsiness. In addition, Dr. Owens, a pediatrician in “www.npr.org”, replied, “Lack of sleep for teenagers increases risk of traffic accidents.” Since lack of sleep causes teens to be unfocused as well, this can affect a student athlete in whatever sport they are in. For example, being unfocused in the game can cause bruising and cuts. Injuries caused by car crashes and/or sports can severely impact a teens