Adolescents are notorious nocturnal creatures. They go to bed late and, whenever they are able to, wake up later in the morning. There is nothing anyone can do to prevent this. However, school start times are usually as early as 7:00 am and this hampers with students sleep patterns. School start times should be pushed back at least one hour. This will have a positive impact on students academic performance, it will reduce absenteeism and likelihood for tardiness, and it will better their health. Today teens get an average of 7 to 7 ½ hours of sleep when they really need between 9 and 9 ½ hours. This affects their performance in school. Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom surveyed more than 7,000 high schoolers in Minnesota about their sleeping habits and how they affected the grades the students received. The results revealed that every additional 15 minutes of sleep a student gets will make a big difference. The teens who received A’s got 15 more minutes than those who received B’s, who had gotten ll more minutes than those who got C’s, and C’s had …show more content…
When teens wake up, they have to be able to concentrate, make decisions, as well as be engaged at school. If there is a lack of sleep, students have a more difficult time completing these tasks. Because sleep also regulates appetite, insufficient sleep will put teens at risk for metabolic and nutritional deficits; this includes obesity. Mark Carskadon, PhD, cites many reasons why teens should get the sleep they need, and a decrease in the likelihood of students being depressed is one of them (National Sleep Foundation). Throughout the day students see, hear, and learn so much. They need to have sufficient sleep to be able to process the enormous intake of information to be able to maintain a healthy balance in their life; pushing back school start times would help with