Later Start Time

Words: 635
Pages: 3

Have you ever woken up and felt like you didn’t sleep at all? Can’t remember much from the day before? That is because you didn’t get enough sleep, and this is what many high school students have to deal with. Many high school students around the world don’t get enough sleep, and that can cause issues with health and academics. High school students should have a later start time due to academic and health benefits. One major reason high schools should have a late start time is the many health benefits that come with teenagers getting more sleep. Teenagers have so many things going on that they keep up late at night. In passage 1, a study done by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) found that most teens head to school without the recommended …show more content…
When teens hit puberty, the number of long brain waves drop during the non-REM (rapid eye movement). Neuroscientists suggest that this drop is necessary for the brain to prune unnecessary connections between nerve cells and helps the brain mature (Kowaski page 1). Teens not getting enough sleep can also cause their circadian rhythm to shift, causing a later release of melatonin (Kowalski page 1). As Kowalski states in passage 1, “... studies are clear: Teens’ brains need sleep!” A later school start time would allow them to do just that. A second major reason for high schools to have a later start time is the benefits to students’ academic success. Not having a lot of sleep can be hard when trying to prepare for a big test. In passage 1 it states, “Adequate sleep is important for learning too. Basically at night the sleep processes all of your information from the previous day,” (Kowalski page 1). This evidence supports that more sleep equals more success academically. More evidence found in passage 1 states that studies have been made with schools that have a later start time and an earlier start time and the information found states that the students with more time to sleep did better in class (Kowalski page