Why High School Should Start Later Essay

Beep beep beep your alarm clock is squawking at you for the third time this morning. The clock reads 7:00 AM, and you will be late if you snooze it once more. You were up too late last night, and nothing sounds more inviting than your bed. High school students are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities or may need to work an after school job, and often feel this way in the morning. The fact is that there is not enough time in the day to fit school, extracurriculars, and homework all while still maintaining a healthy social life and most importantly, receiving a sufficient amount of sleep each night. Although the recommendation is a minimum of eight and a half hours, many students do not reach this goal (Owens). Some may accuse …show more content…
The brain releases melatonin, a hormone which regulates sleep and wakefulness, on a delayed schedule, making it difficult for teens to even feel tired before 11 PM (Malatesta). With the recommendation of eight and a half to ten hours of sleep for teenagers by the National Sleep Foundation, students would have to be sleeping until 7:30 AM to receive the minimum amount of hours. However, a survey taken by the National Sleep Foundation found that students were significantly missing this mark.
87% of high school students in the united States were getting less than the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep on school nights; indeed, the average amount of school night sleep obtained by high school seniors was less than 7 hours. (Malatesta) This fatigue can be dangerous, especially behind the wheel of a car. A 2014 study performed by University of Minnesota student found that starting school an hour and a half later greatly reduced teen involved car crashes (Malatesta). Students who participate in extracurricular activities or hold a job may be up late some nights out of the week doing homework or arriving home late if they have to travel to a game. This can throw off their internal alarm clocks which can cause them to be tired when they are supposed to be

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Essay On Why High School Should Start Later