should your school day start later essay

• Paired Texts
• Related Media
• Teacher Guide

For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.

• CommonLit is a nonprofit that has everything teachers and schools need for top-notch literacy instruction: a full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and formative data. Browse Content Who We Are About

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

student opinion

Should Your School Day Start Later?

If it did, would students get more sleep? Or would they just stay up later?

By Shannon Doyne

Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

Do you get enough sleep during the school year? If not, what keeps you from being well rested?

Do you wish your school day started later? In your opinion, what would be the advantages and drawbacks of a later start time?

In “ California Tells Schools to Start Later, Giving Teenagers More Sleep, ” Christine Hauser and Isabella Kwai write about a new California law that pushes back start times at most public middle and high schools. The law cites research that says attendance and performance will improve if teenagers get more sleep. The article states:

The passage of the law followed years of mounting calls for later school start times from sleep experts who said such a move would optimize learning, reduce tardiness and contribute to overall well-being. The law encourages districts to publish research on their websites about the impact of sleep deprivation on adolescents. A frequently cited policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, made in 2014, called insufficient sleep for adolescents a “public health issue” and recommended that most schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine agreed. In one 2006 poll from the National Sleep Foundation, 45 percent of adolescents in the United States said they slept for an insufficient length of time on school nights, and 19 percent of students said they fell asleep in school at least once a week. Another study, published in 2017 by the University of Minnesota, which surveyed 9,000 students across five school districts with varying start times, found that those who started school later slept more. Students who had more sleep reported better mental health outcomes and less use of substances like alcohol and cigarettes. Students who slept more also had improved attendance and enrollment rates, and they were less likely to drive while drowsy. About 90 percent of high schools and 80 percent of middle schools in the nation start before 8:30 a.m., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in 2014.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Do you feel like you get enough sleep?

What would be your ideal time to start the school day? What about to end the school day? Why?

How would changing your school’s start and end times affect activities like sports, clubs and part-time jobs?

Anthony J. Portantino, a Democratic state senator who wrote the bill, calls later start times for schools a “magic bullet” when it comes to education. What are your thoughts on this? Can later start times really improve things like test scores, attendance and graduation rates? Explain.

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Exploring the Evidence: 7 Comprehensive Reasons Why School Should Start Later for Enhanced Student Well-being and Academic Success

Traditionally, schools have adhered to an early morning schedule, a routine that is increasingly viewed as misaligned with adolescent physiological rhythms and conducive to chronic sleep deprivation. This discrepancy between school schedules and the natural sleep patterns of teenagers has sparked a significant reevaluation of how educational institutions can best support the developmental and learning needs of their students.

Reasons why School should Start Later in the Morning: – Better for students sleep and attendance – Don’t need to stay up as late to do homework because you can do it in the morning — Pisha 🍉 ⪩⚢⪨ Et Le Ena Piou (@mafuanenautism)  September 30, 2022

This article embarks on a comprehensive examination of the subject, exploring the multifaceted benefits of starting school later, the considerations and challenges that come with such a change, and the real-world implications as evidenced by initiatives like those undertaken by the Seattle School District. Through this analysis, we aim to provide a balanced perspective on why the shift towards later school start times could represent a significant step forward in fostering environments that truly cater to the needs and potentials of our young learners.

7 Reasons Why School Should Start Later

1. improves academic performance.

Discover in this video how mastering healthy sleep habits can serve as a genuine performance enhancer in the classroom, leading to better sleep and higher GPAs for students.

2. Allows Teens to Get More Sleep

The mismatch between teenagers’ biological clocks and early school schedules is a significant barrier to their health and well-being. Recognizing the critical importance of sleep for this age group underlines the need for adjustments in school start times to support their developmental needs.

3. Reduces Absenteeism

This not only benefits students’ academic performance and continuity of learning but also contributes to a more vibrant, participatory school environment. Improved health outcomes due to adequate sleep thus serve as a preventive measure against common ailments, ensuring that students remain present and engaged in their educational journey.

4. Lowers Risk of Depression and Mental Health Issues

5. reduces drowsy driving in teens, 6. helps teens feel happier, 7. reduced stress, the potential drawbacks of starting school later, 1. scheduling sports and extracurriculars becomes more difficult, 2. increases childcare costs and logistical challenges for working parents, 3. may make after-school jobs and activities more difficult, 4. reduces time for homework and family activities, the impact of delayed school start times in seattle school district, useful resources, final thoughts, leave a comment cancel reply.

The New York Times

The learning network | should the school day start later.

Should the School Day Start Later?

Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.

• See All Student Opinion »

Could letting teenagers sleep later in the morning do more than just make them happy? New evidence suggests that a later start to the school day could have all sorts of benefits, like better grades and fewer car crashes. But some worry that pushing the school day back might get in the way of after-school sports and jobs, and wouldn’t leave students enough time to finish homework.

Should the school day start later?

In “To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In,” Jan Hoffman writes:

Jilly Dos Santos really did try to get to school on time. She set three successive alarms on her phone. Skipped breakfast. Hastily applied makeup while her fuming father drove. But last year she rarely made it into the frantic scrum at the doors of Rock Bridge High School here by the first bell, at 7:50 a.m. Then she heard that the school board was about to make the day start even earlier, at 7:20 a.m. “I thought, if that happens, I will die,” recalled Jilly, 17. “I will drop out of school!” That was when the sleep-deprived teenager turned into a sleep activist. She was determined to convince the board of a truth she knew in the core of her tired, lanky body: Teenagers are developmentally driven to be late to bed, late to rise. Could the board realign the first bell with that biological reality? The sputtering, nearly 20-year movement to start high schools later has recently gained momentum in communities like this one, as hundreds of schools in dozens of districts across the country have bowed to the accumulating research on the adolescent body clock. In just the last two years, high schools in Long Beach, Calif.; Stillwater, Okla.; Decatur, Ga.;, and Glens Falls, N.Y., have pushed back their first bells, joining early adopters in Connecticut, North Carolina, Kentucky and Minnesota. The Seattle school board will vote this month on whether to pursue the issue. The superintendent of Montgomery County, Md., supports the shift, and the school board for Fairfax County, Va., is working with consultants to develop options for starts after 8 a.m.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …

— What time does your school day start and end?

— Should your school day start later? Or do you like your daily schedule?

— Is an early start time leaving you sleep deprived? Are you staying up later than you should?

— What do you think the most important benefits of a later start time would be? What might the disadvantages be?

— What do you think about the campaign that Jilly Dos Santos led in her district to push back the high school start time?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment below. Please use only your first name . For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

The school day should start at 8:15 and end at 3:00 because that gives you enough time to get up and get refreshed for the day before you go to school. My school starts at 7:45 and its just too early and I rarely ever take in the information from my 1st period class. Since my school does start early, even if I go to bed early, I constantly feel sleep deprived and sluggish. The advantages to a later start time would be that you take in more information in the mornings and that you are fully rested so you can go throughout your day with a positive upbeat attitude.

Our school in Sweden starts earliest 8:30 a.m. and ends latest 4:30 p.m. I like my daily schedule, because if you start your school day later, that means that you will get home later. When you get home later you don’t have much time to do anything. An early start is leaving me sleep deprived, because I always end up going to sleep late at night. But I still manage school, I wait until the weekend to sleep longer.

The most important benefits of a later start time is that you get to sleep longer, and some people who has a hard time waking up in the morning, has a better chance at making it to class. The disadvantages can be that you come home later.

I think the campaign that Jilly Dos Santos led was a great idea. I think it’s horrible how a school can start as early as 7:20. I think she did good… She fought for what she thought was right.

i think its a bit of a personal problem because at Fork Union Military Academy we have 20 minutes to do our stuff when we wake up at 6 a.m. We are then ready to take on the day later

My class day starts at 8:00 and ends at 2:00. I like my class schedule. An early start would not leave me sleep deprived as long as I can get my homework done earlier and go to sleep earlier. At my school, a later school time would be allow more sleep. A benefit would be shorter practice times and later school end times. It is good that she actually accomplished it.

I think it would be a great idea to push the starting time for school so that students may have a full sleep, thus performing well in class.

My school starts at 8:00 and ends at 2:00. I don’t have a problem with the time school starts. Yes I stay up later then I should and when I wake up I am weak and really tired. The advantages of a later school start time would be the student can take his time on his homework at nights and the disadvantages would be kids would stay up later than they should. I think the campaign is straight stupid! I go to Fork Union Military Academy and I have 20 mins to get ready in the morning and that girl doesn’t have to put make-up on…. It is all in time management! If she uses her time wisely then she would be all good!

My school day starts at 8AM and ends at 2PM. Personally, i think the school day should start a bit later. I feel like I’m lacking the rest i need during the day. Because of the military academy environment, we have to go to sleep at 10PM and wake up at 6AM, and i still feel sluggish in the morning. I can already see the benefits of waking up later, because on weekends, we are allowed to wake up at 7AM, and many times i will feel well rested and even sometimes be able to wake up before 7AM. I could see a disadvantage of waking up at 7AM on school days because I’m sure that the school would require you to stay an hour after class because you’d be coming to school an hour later. I think the extra time to sleep in would be extremely beneficial to the grades of students because they would be able to concentrate more during class, remember things better than they would, and just have a better mood because they were fully rested.

In my opinion my school need to increase the number of hours that we sleep. I wake up a 6 am and sleep at 10 pm. I feel tired during the class day sometimes and cannot focus. My rest has been getting in the way of my grades and I just want my school to let us sleep for 9 to 10 hours instead of 8.

1. My school day starts at 8 am 2. I think my school day should start at a later time, because I think we need more sleep. I think we get out at a reasonable time, but we need to preserve sleep. 3. I am sleep deprived because of how late I go to bed, due to the amount of work I have, and have to wake up very early. 4. I think advantages would be that kids would be more awake and attentive, giving them a chance to do better in school. A disadvantage would be that kids may not get out of school until later in the afternoon. 5. I feel like it is a good idea for both physical health and educational benefit. On the idea that she doesn’t have enough time, I think that is silly. I only have 20 minutes to get ready for class in the morning

I think, like most public schools around Central Virginia, school should start at around 8:30-9:00 and end at around 3:30. My school day starts at 8:00 and ends at 2:00 but I go to boarding school so I don’t have to walk far or drive. I like my schedule because at 2:00, my day is over until I do my homework at 8:00 pm. I can relate to how hard it is to be at school early, but I have to do it. I go to bed at 10 pm get up at 6:00 and have no problem getting ready in 20 minutes. I feel like, if you cannot get to school on time, that is your problem because you should go to bed earlier and get up earlier to allot more time. I understand the whole homework deal, but don’t try to pretend like you (as a public school kid) don’t have enough free time.

My school day starts at 8 and ends at 2 on Mondays through Thursdays, and ends at 12:30 on Friday. I think the day should start at 9-9:30 in the mornings. Early start times are what leave most people sleep deprived but they should just make the decision to go to bed earlier. I think that there would be several benefits from later start times, one including being more focused in class and getting better grades. disadvantages include that some would just stay up later and it would all be relative because they would still not be getting enough sleep. I thought that Jilly had the right idea.

Since I go to a boarding private school, we have a different schedule. We wake up at 6 a.m, have 20 minutes to get dressed, by 6:20 we’re going to breakfast and eating until 7. Then we go back and clean until 7:50. At 7:50 we have 10 minutes to get to class. Our days are from 8:00 a.m until 2:00 p.m with three 45 minutes breaks throughout the day. Later on that day we have a mandatory study hall at 7:45 p.m until 9:40 p.m and then we go to bed at 10:00. I don’t believe we receive enough sleep each night because between school, sports extra curricular activities, and clean-ups, I don’t believe eight hours is enough.

In my opinion, I don’t think schools should start later. My school starts at 7:30 and goes to 2:15. I like my schedule because I get home earlier, so I have more time to do what I want. If schools set their start times back, it wouldn’t make students less tired, it would just be one less hour of daylight after school. Plus, would students really get more sleep? This is just an excuse to stay up later every night. I’ve experienced early and late start times, and I definitely like the earlier times better.

My school starts at 7:10 and ends at 2:20. I don’t really know if it should or shouldn’t. I kind of like my daily schedule. I can’t tell if it is making me sleep deprived. Sometimes but not all the time. I don’t really know any. I don’t know. I don’t agree with that at all.

Should school start later? I think yes. I mean not to late just like an extra hour maybe like 9 a.m instead of 7 a.m. I think that would be best for everyone.

My typical school day starts at 7:15 and ends at 2:20. I think our school day should start later because I wake up at 5:00 in the morning just for school. I do not like it at all!! I am so not an early person so I do not like waking up at 5:00 every single day. I think an early start time is not leaving me sleep deprived, I just do not like waking up that early. I do not stay up later than I should, I just like laying in my bed because it is comfortable and when I am laying down it feels better to my back that is messed up. So I think that school should start later than it does for us.

My school starts at 7:15 and ends at 2:20. I would love to have my school start later, but it would get in the way of homework and jobs. I go to bed every night at a decent time, but the time that I wake up in the morning leaves me with only about six hours of sleep, which can be hard to deal with on some days. The benefits of starting school later would be being happier and feeling better and more alert, while the disadvantages would be less time for homework and a job. At my school there is time to get work done that could otherwise be homework, so with that it would not hurt to start school an hour or two later. There are still other things to consider, like jobs, home chores, and on some nights excess homework. It really depends on the school and the students, but I don’t think that changing the hours would be a bad thing.

Should school days be shorter?

Well should school days be shorter I don’t know should they? Yes school days should be shorter why because students can have hard times sitting all day and trying to follow directions. The affect it has on students can possibly be insubordination, nausea, and later health problems. Taking too much information in the human brain causes stress and multiple headaches. By the way stress speeds up the aging process if you didn’t know and having stress on a young age is not good. I can wright a hole essay about this will this ever make out to people and have them to actually care no. I am sorry for some of my punctuation but whatever its life no one’s perfect. The real reason to having shortened days relies on the people who have the right to chance it. I writing this essay will not solve anything but hopefully it does. School days should definitely be shorter students like I need more time to work on life I spend 7 hours every day even weekends worrying about school. Being an adult makes no difference than being a student or child cause one day we will be capable of doing the same things that’s just logic. The board of education expects all kids that go to school deal with it well that’s not going to happen. Even teachers complain on their free time and budget its funny cause I know they’re at least getting paid 600$ a week. Not just making school shorter but make a new industry and a new world on earth. That won’t even happen either because the economy is so messed up. 2014 people care more about their technology than their selves. If I don’t win this contest its okay I just want you guys know I put an effort into what I’m saying, and if you don’t like it I’m sorry I’m just expressing my feelings. Maybe there will be a day the world will be completely peaceful but we have a lot of work to do. So I really hope you people enjoy this piece of writing thank you.

Sincerely, Dante Y

yes school days should start later because your brain does not start functioning until after 10:00.

well seeing as my school was on a two hour delay today, i don’t care. But i like the way my school is now, it starts at 7:15 and ends at 2:20.

I feel that the school day should start a lot later so that we can actually get something done in our classes instead of being extremely tired by fourth block

Most Definitely. I do think that school should start at a later time. At least like an hour or so starting at 8. I think that by doing this it would make a lot of people happy especially me.

i feel the school day should begin 9:15 am instead of 7:15 and operate on the 2 hour delay schedule. The stress of waking up early leaves me sleepy throughout the day and i think sleeping in at least another hour could help everyone.

My school day starts at 7:10 and ends at 2:20, i like my daily schedule because it gives me time for sports and then i can do things like homework or watch tv after that. If we started any later it would only benefit people that didn’t do sports and hurt the athletes. I think the only reason people want more time is because they go to sleep late and that’s their problem.

My school starts at 7:15 every morning and it ends 2:20. I think it should and I don’t really like daily schedule. What I like it we have about one hour for lunch. It gives me the opportunity to eat and go to my class to get help. It not that deprived to wake up early. I go to sleep on time every day. I think it will benefit the student in their grades.

What's Next

Later school times promote adolescent well-being

Moving high school start times can improve student performance and general quality of life

• Schools and Classrooms

Delaying start times

Though comprehensive national statistics on school start times are not available, it is common for American public high schools to begin their instructional day between 7–8 a.m. Research has shown that these early bell times are responsible for the discrepancy between how much sleep teens need and how much sleep they get. 9 When school systems have moved to later start times, they have found that their students get more sleep. 4,19 – 20 Numerous studies have been done with schools that have shifted to later start times; while individual differences in communities and research methodology have led to different outcomes, results are almost always positive. Benefits observed from later high school start times include: 4, 6,9 – 14, 16, 19 – 21

• Increased attendance rates 
• Decrease in disciplinary action 
• Decrease in student-involved car accidents 
• Increase in student GPA 
• Increase in state assessment scores 
• Increase in college admissions test scores 
• Increase in student attention 
• Decrease in student sleeping during instruction 
• Increase in quality of student-family interaction

These benefits are from studies of delayed start times in schools and districts across the country in Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Rhode Island, Virginia, & Wyoming. They have been done with schools in a broad range of developed environments–urban, suburban, and rural.

Sleeping in adolescence

The optimal amount of sleep for adolescents is approximately 9 ¼ hours nightly. 2 Surveys show that, while younger children generally get enough sleep, by early adolescence, most do not; this trend continues to worsen throughout the teenage years (See Figure 1 ). More than half of teens aged 15-17 sleep for 7 or fewer hours per school night.

Teens are notorious night owls – generally, they go to bed late in the evening and, when given the opportunity, wake up late in the morning. This tendency has biological and physiological roots. The sleep-wake cycle is governed by both the homeostatic drive for sleep (Process S) and the circadian rhythm (Process C). 5,8

• Process S builds during wakefulness and makes you feel tired. This process weakens during adolescence. 1,3
• Process C helps the body determine when the right time for sleep is. It naturally shifts later during adolescence. This is called Delayed Phase Preference. 18

Process S and Process C heavily influence mood and learning abilities. 17 While they are interconnected, fixing an issue with one does not mean that an issue with the other will be resolved. That is, simply going to bed earlier does not necessarily make someone less tired in the early morning hours. 9

Benefits of sleep

Scientists are still discovering new benefits of sleep. Research has suggested that sleep is vital to almost all areas of human functioning. Some benefits of sleep are listed below. 6,7,9,16,21

Sleep leads to increases in/benefits to:

• Memory & learning 
• Emotional regulation 
• Mental health & well-being 
• Weight control/Body Mass Index (BMI)

Loss of sleep leads to decreases in/problems with:

• Information retention & cognition 
• Student behavior and classroom conflict 
• Attendance issues 
• Mood regulation

Concerns about delayed start times have generally focused less on academic/social/cognitive outcomes and more on logistical complications. Some considerations include: 9

• Increased cost, congestion, & delays associated with having busses on the road later in the morning 
• Inability of parents to rely on older children for afternoon childcare, as the lower schools would have effectively switched schedules with the upper schools. 
• Scheduling conflicts for intervarsity/interscholastic events with neighboring jurisdictions that have earlier dismissal.

These issues are surmountable, and, with adequate planning, can be minimized or completely eliminated.

While implementation may be complex, particularly when a change would bring a school’s schedule out of sync with neighboring systems, delaying school start times so that adolescents begin their instructional day later provides numerous benefits to the students and their broader community alike.

1. Carskadon, M. A. (2011). Sleep in adolescents: The perfect storm. Pediatrics Clinics of North America, 58 , 637-647.

2. Carskadon, M. A. (2013). Optimal sleep habits in adolescents. In H. P. A. Van Dongen & G. A. Kerkhof (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Sleep, 190 , 86-87.

3. Carskadon, M. A., Acebo, C., & Jenni, O. G. (2004). Regulation of adolescent sleep: Implications for behavior. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021 , 276-291.

4. Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. (1998). School start time study. Technical report: Vol. II. Analysis of student survey data.

5. Crowley, S. J., Acebo, C., & Carskadon, M. A. (2007). Sleep, circadian rhythms, and delayed phase in adolescence. Sleep Medicine, 8 , 602–612

6. Davison, C. M., Newton, L., Brown, R. S., Freeman, J., Ufholz, L. A., & Smith, J. D. (2012). Systematic Review Protocol: Later School Start Times for Supporting the Education, Health and Well-being of High School Students. The Campbell Collaboration .

7. El-Sheikh, M., Bagley, E. J., Keiley, M. K., & Erath, S. A. (2014). Growth in Body Mass Index From Childhood Into Adolescence: The Role of Sleep Duration and Quality. The Journal of Early Adolescence.

8. Hagenauer, M. H., Perryman, J. I., Lee, T. M., & Carskadon, M. A. (2009). Adolescent changes in the homeostatic and circadian regulation of sleep. Developmental Neuroscience, 31 , 276-284.

9. Kirby, M., Maggi, S., & D’Angiulli, A. (2011). School start times and the sleep-wake cycle of adolescents: A review and critical evaluation of available evidence. Educational Researcher. 40 (2), 56-61

10. National Sleep Foundation. (2005a). Changing school start times: Arlington, Virginia

11. National Sleep Foundation. (2005b). Changing school start times: Denver, Colorado

12. National Sleep Foundation. (2005c). Changing school start times: Fayette County, Kentucky

13. National Sleep Foundation. (2005d). Changing school start times: Jessamine County, Kentucky

14. National Sleep Foundation. (2005e). Changing school start times: Wilton, Connecticut

15. National Sleep Foundation. (2014). 2014 Sleep In America ® poll - Sleep in the modern family: Summary of findings.

16. Owens JA, Belon K, Moss P. (2010). Impact of delaying school start time on adolescent sleep, mood, and behavior. Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, 164 (7), 608–14

17. Schmidt, C., Collette, F., Cajochen, C., & Peigneux, P. (2007). A time to think: Circadian rhythms in human cognition. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24 , 755–789.

18. Tarokh, L., & Carskadon, M. A. (2009). Sleep in adolescents. In Squire, L.R. (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 8 , Oxford Academic Press, 1015-1022

19. Vedaa, Ø., Saxvig, I. W., & Wilhelmsen-Langeland, A. (2012). School start time, sleepiness and functioning in Norwegian adolescents. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 56 , 55-67

20. Wahlstrom, K. (2002). Changing times: Findings from the first longitudinal study of later high school start times. NASSP Bulletin, 86 (633) , 3–21.

21. Wahlstrom, K., Dretzke, B., Gordon, M., Peterson, K., Edwards, K., & Gdula, J. (2014). Examining the Impact of Later High School Start Times on the Health and Academic Performance of High School Students: A Multi-Site Study. Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement.

Recommended Reading

You may also like

Exploring what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Teens need more sleep. Why don’t we start school later?

• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook
• Share on WhatsApp
• Share through Email

This story was originally published by KFF Health News and WPLN , Nashville’s NPR station.

High school classes start so early in Nashville that some kids get on buses at 5:30 in the morning.

Just 10 percent of public schools nationwide start before 7:30 a.m., according to federal statistics . But in Nashville, classes start at 7:05—a fact the new mayor, Freddie O’Connell, has been criticizing for years.

“It’s not a badge of honor,” he said when he was still a city council member.

Since his election in September, O’Connell has announced that pushing back school start times is a cornerstone of the education policy he is promoting. He and others around the country have been trying to stress that teenagers aren’t lazy or to blame for getting too little sleep. It’s science.

“All teenagers have this shift in their brain that causes them to not feel sleepy until about 10:45 or 11 at night,” said Kyla Wahlstrom, a senior research fellow at the University of Minnesota in the College of Education and Human Development. She studies how education policy affects learning, and she used to be a teacher. “It’s a shift that is biologically determined.”

Sign up for Harvard Public Health

Delivered to your inbox weekly.

• Email address By clicking “Subscribe,” you agree to receive email communications from Harvard Public Health.
• Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Sleep deprivation in teenagers is linked to mental health struggles, worse grades, traffic accidents, and more. That’s why states including California and Florida have mandated later start times. Individual districts across the country—including some in Tennessee—have made the same change.

But resistance to later starts is less about the science than it is about logistical and financial difficulties, especially with basics like busing.

State Rep.  John Ray Clemmons , a Nashville Democrat, tried to pass  a bill mandating later start times  in 2022.

“I’m starting to experience this with one of my own children,” he said during a committee hearing on the bill. He dug into the biology, including the famous sleep hormone melatonin.

Melatonin makes people feel drowsy. The brain starts producing it when it gets dark outside, and its production peaks in the middle of the night. Adolescents’ brains start releasing melatonin about  three hours later  than adults’ and younger children’s brains, according to the American Chemical Society. When teens wake up early, their brains are still producing melatonin.

“Because of the way adolescents’ bodies release melatonin, waking a teen at 7 a.m. is akin to waking one of us at 4 a.m.,” Clemmons said.

He brought in a local parent, Anna Thorsen, who testified that later start time legislation could protect vulnerable kids like hers.

“My youngest daughter is a freshman who suffers from a rare genetic epilepsy that killed her older sister last year,” she said. “In fact, last March, my youngest daughter had a life-threatening seizure that was partially induced by sleep deprivation.”

State Rep. John Ragan , a Knoxville-area Republican, said almost all the feedback he heard on the bill came from Nashville.

“Go to your school board and tell them to change the rule, change the law, change their start times,” he said. “But to mandate [the rest of the state] do this because of one school board that doesn’t want to listen to their parents?”

Legislative leaders gave the bill one hearing. It didn’t pass into state law.

That leaves Nashville, a city that often calls itself the Silicon Valley of health care, to figure out its own path. O’Connell is now on the case. The mayor has some power over the school budget, which gives him influence in education policy. However, it’s up to the school board to determine start times.

“Early start times, particularly for adolescents, are problematic,” the mayor said. “We also know that making a change—even a 30-minute change—has a lot of logistics.”

A major concern has been busing. Even in normal times, districts use the same buses and drivers for students of all ages. They stagger start times to do that, with high schoolers arriving and leaving school earliest in the day. The idea is that they can handle being alone in the dark at a bus stop more readily than smaller children, and it also lets them get home first to help take care of younger siblings after school.

If high schools started as late as middle and elementary schools, that would likely mean strain on transportation resources. O’Connell said Nashville’s limited mass transit compounds the problem.

“That is one of the biggest issues to resolve,” he said.

Several years ago, Collierville, a district in suburban Memphis, launched a study on school start times. That district serves far fewer students—9,000, compared with  Nashville’s roughly 86,000 .

Collierville officials estimated in the study that busing costs associated with delayed start times could be as high as $1.4 million annually. That estimate assumed the district would need more drivers, more fuel and maintenance, more storage facilities, and additional support personnel—for example, an additional dispatcher and mechanic.

Despite that, the district did push back high school start times in 2018.

O’Connell said one of the concerns he has heard from parents is financial, such as that they need help with family-run businesses or they need their students to help generate household income at other jobs after school lets out.

The  National Sleep Foundation , a nonprofit that advocates for later start times, conducted a 2022 survey of parents, teachers, and other adults that found that only about one-third of the parents who responded wanted later starts. Adults as a whole and teachers responded slightly more favorably, but less than 40 percent of each group supported delaying the day.

A National Education Association  article from 2022  found that many parents who oppose later start times don’t necessarily doubt the science; they’re concerned about scheduling.

Wahlstrom, the education researcher, said she fears parents underestimate how important sleep, especially on weeknights, is to brain development and academic performance.

“Sometimes both parents and teens think that they can just catch up on their sleep on the weekend. That is a total false assumption,” said Wahlstrom, who equated sleep to food for the brain. “It’s like, ‘OK, we’re going to deprive ourselves of adequate food three days out of the week, but then we’re going to gorge on food on the weekend.’ That’s not healthy.”

She explained how a lack of sleep can impede scholastic success: The brain shifts memory into long-term storage during deep sleep, so missing out on that rest means retaining less material.

But—perhaps more importantly—sleep helps teenagers improve their mental health. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has been raising alarm bells about youth mental health, noting that a third of teenagers overall and half of teenage girls have reported persistent feelings of hopelessness.

And Wahlstrom said teen sleep deprivation leads to worse mental and behavioral health, which can affect the whole family. She and her team conducted a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the effects of later start times on ninth to 12th graders by surveying 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming from 2010 to 2013. They found students who got at least eight hours of sleep were less likely to report symptoms of depression.

“We do know that there is greater use of drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol when a teen is getting less than eight hours,” she said. “We also know that there is a significant link between teenage depression and any sleep amount that is less than eight hours.”

More than  92 percent of parents  surveyed in a Minnesota school district as part of one of her earlier studies responded that their teenager was easier to live with after the later start time went into effect.

“Many parents have anecdotally told me that their child is a different child. They are able to speak with them at breakfast. They are chatty in the car. They don’t have moody episodes and fly off the handle,” she said. “The parents are just saying it’s remarkable that this has made such a change in their child’s life and their family dynamics.”

Top image: pixelheadphoto / iStock

This article is from a reporting partnership that includes  WPLN  and KFF Health News.

KFF Health News  is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about  KFF .

More in Policy & Practice

NYC is working to help residents live longer, healthier lives

Families in states with bans on trans care are finding hope across state lines

Can California’s health care providers help solve homelessness?

Home — Essay Samples — Education — Starting School Later — School Start Times Should Be Later

School Start Times Should Be Later

• Categories: Starting School Later

About this sample

Words: 455 |

Published: Mar 1, 2019

Words: 455 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr Jacklynne

Verified writer

• Expert in: Education

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1209 words

2 pages / 703 words

7 pages / 3110 words

5 pages / 2188 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Starting School Later

Everyone has always hated getting up super early to go to school. As children get older they move to different schools, from elementary to middle to high school, and the start times get earlier. In elementary school it was never [...]

The issue of school start times has been a topic of debate for many years, with arguments on both sides of the issue. While some argue that starting school later would allow students to get more sleep and perform better [...]

In a society where more is expected from teenage students and schoolwork is harder than that from generations before, it is necessary for the school day to start and end at later times. Early start times have created negative [...]

The internet is an astonishing invention that makes our lives much easier. In modern times, everything is attached to digital technology and nothing works without it. This is increasingly true when discussing education and [...]

Recently, the teachers have become stricter and the students have become smarter. Cheating is the only way for lazy students to pass difficult exams. The definition of cheating is to pass any exams dishonestly. The instructors [...]

Question: Using Brian Holmes problem solving approach, identify an educational problem in your school or area and demonstrate how you can use the approach to investigate and attempt solutions to the problem. Education is a [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Why Should School Start Later?

Table of Contents

Teens reverie sleep each day. This need does not imply laziness on their part or lack of ambition thereof. Instead, sleep cycles change as children grow into adolescence. In adolescence, teens stay up until late and only get up late. It happens because their bodies release a hormone called melatonin which regulates their sleep. Consequently, the melatonin-induced rest keeps teens asleep until 8 a.m. making it appropriate to go to school later. Schools starting later help improve physiological and psychological well-being and help improve learners’ educational performance.

Physiological and Physical Well-Being

Arguably, the most crucial reason schools should start later is adolescent physiology. Adolescents are still growing and developing, and their body clocks are still changing. Studies have shown that, due to these changes, adolescents tend to go to bed later and wake up later than adults, leading to a lack of sleep (Crowley et at., 2018). This lack of sleep can negatively affect adolescents’ physical and mental health, such as fatigue, irritability, and poor concentration. Starting school later would allow adolescents to get the amount of sleep they need. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that when schools started later, adolescents got an extra 42 minutes of sleep per night compared to when schools began earlier. This extra sleep can help to improve their physical and mental health and can help to improve their performance in school.

The teenage years are a time of rapid physical and psychological growth and development. As adolescents try to figure out who they are and where they fit in, they often feel overwhelmed by the pressures of school, their peers, and society. As a result, adolescents are more prone to stress and anxiety than adults. One way to help reduce this stress is to start school later in the morning. By giving adolescents more time to rest and relax before facing the pressures of school, they can better manage their stress levels (Freeman et at., 2020). Studies have shown that adolescents report feeling less stressed, more rested, and more alert when school starts later in the morning. These findings suggest that starting school later in the morning can reduce stress and improve psychological functioning in adolescents. In addition to reducing stress, starting school later can also help to enhance adolescents’ self-esteem.

Adolescents often struggle with insecurity and self-doubt as they try to fit in with their peers and find their place in the world (Freeman et al., 2020). As a result, they often compare themselves to their peers, leading to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. Starting school later can reduce this pressure by giving adolescents more time to rest and relax. This habit can help adolescents to accept themselves for who they are and be more confident in their abilities. Evidence from studies has shown that when school starts later in the morning, adolescents report feeling more positive about themselves, including handling more confident, less anxious, and less stressed (Patrick et al., 2020). Starting school later can also help adolescents better manage their emotions. Adolescents often struggle with regulating their emotions and can become easily overwhelmed by their feelings. These emotional states can lead to irritability, impulsivity, and aggression. However, starting school later in the morning can help reduce these feelings, giving adolescents more time to rest and relax before facing the pressures of school. Evidence from studies has shown that when school starts later, adolescents report feeling less irritable, more alert, and more capable of managing their emotions.

Educational Reasons

The most apparent educational benefit of starting school later is that it gives students more time to sleep. Sleep is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle and is vital for students’ physical and mental health. A later start can give students more time to get the sleep they need to be well-rested and alert during the school day. Studies have shown that students who get adequate sleep are more likely to perform academically, attend better, and be more motivated in school (Sweller et al., 2019). In addition to the potential health benefits of getting more sleep, starting school later can also provide more time for learning and development. With more time in the morning, adolescents can participate in activities such as studying, reading, or reviewing material they learned the previous day. This action can help improve their understanding of the material and help them retain the information longer.

A later start time can also provide more time for extracurricular activities and sports. These activities can help improve adolescents’ physical health and provide them with opportunities for social interaction and emotional development (Freeman et al., 2020). Providing adolescents more time for these activities can help improve their overall well-being. Furthermore, starting school later can help to reduce the stress that students often experience. With a later start time, students can spend more time on activities they enjoy and less worrying about getting up for school in the morning. This will help reduce stress levels and allows students to focus more on their education.

In conclusion, there are many advantages to having school start later. School starting later would give students more time to get adequate sleep, which helps with their mental and physical health. Furthermore, students would be more alert and have better focus during their classes, allowing them to absorb more information and make better grades. Later starting times also give students more time to spend on extracurricular activities and less time worrying about homework and exams. Finally, starting school later would reduce students’ stress and help create a more positive school environment. In addition, starting school later would benefit both students and teachers, an idea that school administrators should seriously consider.

• Crowley, S. J., Wolfson, A. R., Tarokh, L., & Carskadon, M. A. (2018). An update on adolescent sleep: New evidence informing the perfect storm model. Journal of Adolescence, 67 , 55-65.
• Freeman, S., Marston, H. R., Olynick, J., Musselwhite, C., Kulczycki, C., Genoe, R., & Xiong, B. (2020). Intergenerational effects on the impacts of technology use in later life: Insights from an international, multi-site study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17 (16), 5711.
• Patrick, S. W., Henkhaus, L. E., Zickafoose, J. S., Lovell, K., Halvorson, A., Loch, S., … & Davis, M. M. (2020). The well-being of parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic: A national survey. Pediatrics ,  146 (4).
• Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J., & Paas, F. (2019). Cognitive architecture and instructional design: 20 years later. Educational Psychology Review, 31 (2), 261-292.
• Academic Success
• Child Observation
• Early Childhood Education
• High School
• Homeschooling
• Is College Worth It
• School Uniforms
• School Violence

What Do We Really Think of Later School Start Times?

Constance Sommer

Contributing Writer

Constance Sommer is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Vogue, Knowable, and AARP, among others.

Want to read more about all our experts in the field?

Sleep Foundation

Fact-Checking: Our Process

The Sleep Foundation editorial team is dedicated to providing content that meets the highest standards for accuracy and objectivity. Our editors and medical experts rigorously evaluate every article and guide to ensure the information is factual, up-to-date, and free of bias.

The Sleep Foundation fact-checking guidelines are as follows:

• We only cite reputable sources when researching our guides and articles. These include peer-reviewed journals, government reports, academic and medical associations, and interviews with credentialed medical experts and practitioners.
• All scientific data and information must be backed up by at least one reputable source. Each guide and article includes a comprehensive bibliography with full citations and links to the original sources.
• Some guides and articles feature links to other relevant Sleep Foundation pages. These internal links are intended to improve ease of navigation across the site, and are never used as original sources for scientific data or information.
• A member of our medical expert team provides a final review of the content and sources cited for every guide, article, and product review concerning medical- and health-related topics. Inaccurate or unverifiable information will be removed prior to publication.
• Plagiarism is never tolerated. Writers and editors caught stealing content or improperly citing sources are immediately terminated, and we will work to rectify the situation with the original publisher(s)
• Although Sleep Foundation maintains affiliate partnerships with brands and e-commerce portals, these relationships never have any bearing on our product reviews or recommendations. Read our full Advertising Disclosure for more information.

Table of Contents

• At a Glance

Why Does School Start So Early?

How much do start times really affect teens’ sleep, what would we gain from later start times, where does america stand, methodology.

• 38.2% of surveyed U.S. adults believe school start times in their area should be later, compared to 36.6% wanting earlier starts and 25.2% wanting no change.
• California has mandated an 8:30 a.m. or later start time for its high schools as of July 1, 2022.
• Florida approved the same mandate for 8:30 or later start times for high school students in 2023, and this is set to take effect in 2026.
• 83% of U.S. public high schools started before 8:30 a.m. in 2020.
• 44.2% of surveyed parents say they like school start times the way they are, with 34.8% wanting later starts and 21% seeking earlier ones.
• 69.2% of parents and guardians say their school-age children were getting sufficient sleep this past school year.

In 2022, California became the first in the nation to mandate a school start time of no earlier than 8:30 a.m. for high schools, no earlier than 8 a.m. for middle schools. The mandate, which was approved in 2019, took effect at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year. Florida became the second state to pass such a law in 2023, mirroring California’s mandated start times for middle and high school students. Florida’s mandate takes effect in 2026.

There’s science behind it. Teens need at least eight to 10 hours of sleep , according to leading sleep researchers. Numerous surveys in the past decade show that as much as 69% of them aren’t even getting seven hours.

“I would love to see districts really put the public health and learning needs of all children at the forefront because teenagers who aren’t getting the sleep they need cannot learn how they are supposed to in school,” says Wendy M. Troxel, Ph.D., a senior behavioral scientist at RAND Corp. and a SleepFoundation.org medical advisory board member.

While California and Florida are the first to pass statewide laws on the subject, several other states have proposed similar mandates, and cities and school districts nationwide have implemented later start times.

But what do parents, teachers, and other school personnel think about school start times?

SleepFoundation.org polled 1,250 of them in July 2022 and found mixed sentiment. The largest batch of respondents, 38.2%, believed school start times in their area should be later. The rest are satisfied with times as they are now (36.6%) or would like them earlier (25.2%).

Diving deeper into what people think, a clearer picture may emerge about when and where we might see school start-time changes throughout the country.

Before the pandemic, more than 80% Trusted Source National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) The NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. View Source of high schools started their school days before 8:30 a.m., with the average public school beginning at 8 a.m. and 10% ringing the first bell of the day before 7:30 a.m.

That wasn’t always the case. Until a few decades ago, high school teens started their school days as late as 9 a.m. What changed? Districts began to stagger busing schedules as a cost-saving measure. Older children saw their school start times move up, with many having to wake before sunrise to get to sports practices and even classes.

For parents and educators, those early start times also became a habit. It could explain why 44.2% of parents and caregivers in SleepFoundation.org’s poll say they prefer start times to stay the same, compared to 34.7% wanting them pushed back and 21% wanting them even earlier.

Among Census regions, 42.1% adults in the Northeast preferred later starts, followed by 39% in the Midwest, 38.1% in the South, and 35.3% in the West. So maybe that habit is itching to be broken.

Kids need more sleep than adults. Recommendations typically say that children ages 14 to 17 should be sleeping eight to 10 hours Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source a night, with children ages 6 to 13 needing nine to 11 hours.

This is because our bodies, especially our brains, are developing when we go through childhood, with sleep playing a major role.

Puberty in particular shifts the internal biological clock of adolescents back two hours, Troxel says. But getting up early for school, taking on after-school activities, and finishing homework work against the change.

“Your biology wants you to stay up later and sleep in later,” Troxel says, “so teenagers are chronically sleep-deprived.”

Studies show Trusted Source Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. View Source that 31.2% of children ages 13 to 17 aren’t getting enough sleep. That increases to 37.4% of kids ages 6 to 12.

Parents say nearly the same thing, according to the SleepFoundation.org survey. Ninth- to 12-graders average 7.7 hours of sleep, their parents say, below the recommended eight hours. Some 59.5% of parents or guardians say they agreed with the statement that their kids got sufficient sleep on weeknights.

Parents of sixth- to eighth-graders say their children get 7.7 hours of sleep each school night, as well, with 63.8% considering that sufficient. Among first- to fifth-graders, that increases to an even eight hours, with 78.6% of respondents calling that sufficient.

In all, 69.2% of parents and guardians say their school-age children were getting sufficient sleep this past school year. But what about the rest?

When Andi Mannes’ 15-year-old son, Andrew, had a late start time of 8:55 a.m. on Tuesdays at Torrance High School in Torrance, California, the extra hour of sleep came in handy.

“Those mornings, [Andrew] would wake up and be just this pleasant, wonderful kid, and so excited and getting everything done with plenty of time,” Mannes says of her son, who enters his junior year in fall 2022. But: “If we have to drop him off at 7:40 [a.m.], he gets up at the very last second. He’s rushing, he’s yelling, he can’t find his shoes. It’s far more chaotic.”

It’s part of the reason behind the California and Florida laws, and others like them. Studies show that teens in schools with later start times get better sleep Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source .

“This is a public health issue,” says journalist Lisa L. Lewis, who campaigned for the California change and detailed her research in her book “ The Sleep-Deprived Teen .”

Based on responses from surveyed parents or caregivers who prefer later start times, the majority (81.4%) thought later starts would lead to more sleep for students, and 72.4% agreed that they’d also get more sleep themselves.

But sleep isn’t the only factor. Adjusting schedules, fitting in after-school activities, and shifting transportation needs also enter the start-time conversation. Among survey respondents who felt start times should stay the same, 53.8% felt a change would reduce after-school activities for students. The top reason for respondents who favored earlier start times was schedule fit (68.9%).

Skeptics of later school-start times exist. More male respondents to the SleepFoundation.org survey preferred earlier start times (33.6%) to later (32.5%), for example, while 43.3% of females preferred later times.

And then there are teachers. Only 35.2% of surveyed teachers favored later start times, with 36.6% choosing earlier starts.

Administrators in California were particularly vocal when the law passed there in October 2019. That’s when Orange County superintendent Al Mijares argued in CalMatters that starting the school day later is a luxury many working-class parents can’t afford: “The indisputable reality in many of our communities is that students have to begin their day at the same time as their parents.” Another California teacher called the law “a case study in ‘unintended consequences.’”

California did give schools the option of creating a “zero period” earlier in the morning to accommodate early arrivers.

Although California and Florida were the first states to approve a late-start law, these are not the first municipalities to consider it. When Seattle high schools switched to an 8:45 a.m. start time in 2016, one study Trusted Source National Center for Biotechnology Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source found that students got about 34 more minutes of sleep a night. During the 2022-23 school year, Seattle high schools started at 8:50 a.m. to accommodate buses.

A decline in bus service also drove public schools in Denver to move to 8:20 a.m. start times in 2023. There appears to be a growing push for later start times in other communities. Start School Later, an organization dedicated to mandating later start times across the country, claims more than 150 volunteer-led chapters in 33 states and the District of Columbia.

Meanwhile, late-start bills are moving through other states. Representatives in Connecticut , New Jersey , New York , and the U.S. Virgin Islands have proposed mandates for later start times at public schools. Massachusetts and New Mexico have also proposed bills authorizing studies regarding school start times, and Oregon has proposed a similar measure to create a start time “task force.”

Some districts have gone the opposite direction. Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public Schools proposed testing a 9:55 a.m. start time, then scrapped the plan in 2022 after teacher and parent outcries. And Philadelphia rejected 9 a.m. starts for high schools for the coming school year because of a shortage of bus drivers, among other reasons.

Start-time preference varies by state, according to the SleepFoundation.org survey. Twenty states came out in favor (or via a tie) of later school start times, according to their residents. These include South Carolina, whose 8:34 a.m. start time was the latest in 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Missouri and New Jersey residents preferred earlier start times. All other states had a majority leaning toward no change.

As for California: 35.6% of residents who responded to SleepFoundation.org’s survey favored later start times, compared to 32.6% wanting earlier start times and 31.9% wanting them to stay where they are.

Delaney Davis, 18, a recent graduate of Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, got a head start. Her school switched to 8:30 a.m. starts a year before the law took effect.

“It felt more productive to have that extra sleep time,” she says. “I was definitely more awake.”

The survey commissioned by SleepFoundation.org was conducted on the online survey platform Pollfish between July 20 and 21, 2022. Results are from 1,250 survey participants who were ages 18 and older; lived in the United States; and were a parent, guardian, educator, or professional/volunteer who worked with K-12 students at the time of the survey. All attested to answering the survey questions truthfully and accurately.

About Our Editorial Team

Constance Sommer, Contributing Writer

References 18 sources.

SB-328, Chapter 868. 2019, October 14, (California 2019)., Retrieved July 23, 2023 from

Sawyer, H., Taie, S., & Westat. (2020, February). Start Time for U.S. Public High Schools. The Institute of Education Sciences.

Bertsimas, D., Delarue, A., & Martin, S. (2019, March 26). Optimizing schools' start time and bus routes. Https://Doi.Org/10.1073/Pnas.181146211., Retrieved July 25, 2023, from

Hirshkowitz, M., Whiton, K., Albert, S. M., Alessi, C., Bruni, O., DonCarlos, L., Hazen, N., Herman, J., Katz, E. S., Kheirandish-Gozal, L., Neubauer, D. N., O’Donnell, A. E., Ohayon, M., Peever, J., Rawding, R., Sachdeva, R. C., Setters, B., Vitiello, M. V., Ware, J. C., & Adams Hillard, P. J. (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary. Sleep Health, 1(1), 40–43.

Wheaton, A. G., & Claussen, A. H. (2021). Short sleep duration among infants, children, and adolescents aged 4 months–17 years — United States, 2016–2018. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 70(38), 1315–1321.

Alfonsi, V., Palmizio, R., Rubino, A., Scarpelli, S., Gorgoni, M., D’Atri, A., Pazzaglia, M., Ferrara, M., Giuliano, S., & De Gennaro, L. (2020). The Association Between School Start Time and Sleep Duration, Sustained Attention, and Academic Performance. Nature and science of sleep, 12, 1161–1172., Retrieved July 25, 2023, from

Dunster, G. P., de la Iglesia, L., Ben-Hamo, M., Nave, C., Fleischer, J. G., Panda, S., & de la Iglesia, H. O. (2018). Sleepmore in Seattle: Later school start times are associated with more sleep and better performance in high school students. Science advances, 4(12), eaau6200., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Denver Public Schools. (2023). Healthy Start Times., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Start School Later. (2023). Volunteer-Led Chapters., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Proposed Bill No. 5552, LCO No. 1980. 2023, January session, (Connecticut 2023)., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Bill S2462, Senate No. 2462. 2022, May 9, (New Jersey 2022)., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Senate Bill 5449, Senate Education. 2023, March 6, (New York 2023)., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Bill No. 33-0196, Thirty-Third Legislature of the Virgin Islands. 2019, September 20, (U.S. Virgin Islands 2019)., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Resolve H.3980, 192nd General Court. 2021, July 21, (Massachusetts 2021)., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

HM 56, 56th Legislature. 2023, February 17, (New Mexico 2023)., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

House Bill 2751, 82nd Legislative Assembly. 2023, (Oregon 2023)., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Krauth, O. (2022, March 9). After educator outcry, JCPS to revisit idea to change start times at alternative schools. Courier Journal., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Mezzacappa, D. (2022, May 25). Philly backtracks on planned 9 a.m. high school start time. Chalkbeat Philadelphia., Retrieved July 25, 2023 , from

Learn More About Sleep News

Gallup Poll Shows US Adults Are More Stressed and Sleep Deprived Than Ever Before

Your Side Hustle Could Be Impacting Your Sleep Health

Researchers Develop New Seal-Less CPAP Mask

New Research Shows Infant Gut Bacteria Has Its Own Circadian Rhythm

Study Finds Microdosing LSD May Enhance Sleep

Researchers Unveil Innovative Sensor to Detect Sleep Apnea

46% of People with Below-Average Sleep Quality Rate Their Mental Health As Poor

Philips Reaches $1.1B Settlement Over Defective CPAP Machines

Oura Launches New Crowdsourcing Research Platform for Its Popular Smart Ring App

Could Bird Brains Shed Light on Sleep Disorders?

Can a Weight-Loss Drug Treat Sleep Apnea on Its Own?

Daytime Brain Wave Patterns May Explain How Memories Are Stored During Sleep

Study Finds Racial Disparities in Childhood Insomnia That Persist Among Young Adults

Supreme Court to Hear Case on Public Sleeping Ban

Greener Streets and Water Views May Improve Sleep

Does Tying a Sweatshirt Around Your Head Help You Sleep?

Sleeping Less Than 7 Hours Per Night Linked to Higher Risk of Death in People With Sleep Apnea

Congressional Watchdog Says Military Service Members Aren't Getting Enough Sleep

Study Links Bed Sharing to Higher Rate of Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths

Accidental Melatonin Overdoses by Kids Leads to Sharp Spike in ER Visits

Listening to Calming Words While Asleep Boosts Deep Sleep

Want To Sleep Better? Move Your Body More.

Researchers Develop Blood Test to Detect Sleep Deprivation

Stroke Risk Due to Sleep Apnea May Differ Among White and Black People

New Study Finds Link Between Short Sleep and Diabetes

77% of Young Adult Vape Users Report Insomnia Symptoms

Pilots Falling Asleep and Veering Off Course Spotlights Drowsy Flying

How Does Your Sleep Change With a New Mattress?

Service Dogs Help Autistic Kids Sleep Better

People On Plant-Based Diets Sleep Up to 48 More Minutes Per Night

Grounding Sheets: Does Channeling Earth’s Energy Help You Sleep Better?

Plant-Based Diet Lowers Risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

March Madness Might Be a Gamble On Your Sleep

Can the Rise of Chronoworking Help Fix Our Sleep?

New Data Show Widespread Problems of Short Sleep and Social Jetlag

The Windowless Bedroom Debate Heats Up

AI Program Shows Promise In Predicting Health Risks From Sleep Apnea

Despite Disturbing Each Other's Sleep, Mice Refuse Sleep Divorces

The Sleep Gender Gap: Nighttime Disparities Between Women and Men

Latest Updates: Daylight Saving Time in 2024

Study Finds Bedtime Procrastination Impacts Sleep Quality

How Pumping Up with Steroids Can Deflate Sleep

Say We Abolished Daylight Saving Time. Here’s How It Would Change Sleep.

What Does the Hurkle-Durkle TikTok Trend Do for Your Sleep?

New Study Finds Post-COVID Insomnia is Common Even Among Mild Cases

Medical Clowns Help Kids in Hospitals Sleep Better

New Research Highlights Problems With Polyphasic Sleep

Can You Catch All Your ZZZs with Pokémon Sleep App?

Only Murders While You're Sleeping: The Parasomnia Defense

New Study Finds Work-Sponsored Program Boosts Sleep and Productivity

When Your Partner Snores, No One Sleeps

Police Killings of Unarmed Black People Impact Sleep Health of Black Community

Samsung Watch Sleep Apnea Feature First Ever Approved by FDA

New Research Evaluates Accuracy of Sleep Trackers

Hotels Go Beyond Sleep Tourism to Offer Sleep Studies

You Can Have Your Super Bowl and Your Sleep Too

Purdy vs. Mahomes: Which Super Bowl LVIII QB Has Better Sleep Habits?

New Studies Link Sleep Problems and Hearing Loss

New Study Suggests Sleep Resets the Brain Like a Computer

Philips to Stop Selling Sleep Apnea Machines in US After Recall Problems

2024 Projected to Be Biggest Year Yet for Sleep Industry

New Sleep Mask Benefit Unlocked: Improved Brain Function

The Best & Worst U.S. Cities for Sleep

Sleepy Girl Mocktails Are Trending But Do They Really Help You Sleep Better?

Could Seizures Be Behind Children's Sudden Unexplained Deaths During Sleep?

As Flu and COVID-19 Cases Spike, Safeguard Your Sleep

New Study Finds That the Wavelength of Light, Not Color, Impacts Sleep

New Study Shows CPAP Therapy Can Aid Memory Processes in the Brain

If Opening a Window Leads to Better Sleep, Why Don't We Do It?

Evaluating ChatGPT's Potential in Sleep Education and Beyond

Can New Weight Loss Drugs Improve Sleep?

Thinking About a Dry January? 61% Say They Sleep Better For It.

10 New Year's Resolutions That Can Improve Your Sleep But a Third of People Never Try

FDA Clears First Oral Appliance for Severe Sleep Apnea

The Year in Sleep: 37% of Us Slept Worse in 2023

FDA Warns Certain Philips CPAP Machines May Overheat and Cause Injuries

Researchers Harness AI and Other Innovations to Detect Sleep Apnea

The Unexpected Impact of Caffeine and Alcohol on Sleep

Is Cannabis More Effective Than Other Sleep Aids?

Being Compassionate May Help You Sleep Easier At Night

77% of Us Lose Sleep Over Financial Worries. How Do We Earn It Back?

Do Your Children Have Trouble Sleeping? It Could Be in Their Genes

New Feature for 2024 Apple Watch Reportedly Detects Sleep Apnea

Sleep Deprivation Can Take a Big Toll on Your Heart and Brain

Drowsy Driving Is a Factor in 21% of Fatal Crashes. Why Don't We Talk About It More?

Health and Safety Concerns Cited as Top Priority in New Daylight Saving Time Survey

How Bedroom Temperatures and Bedding Choices Impact Your Sleep

Sleep Like the Candidates: How Politicians Rest on the Campaign Trail

New Study Shows What's in Your Gut Influences How and When You Sleep

Hitting the Snooze Button May Actually be Good for You

New Study Says Bedtime Routines are Part of Our Survival Instinct

Why Spooky Season Can be Frightful for Kids' Sleep

Teens' Depression Improves With Therapy That Targets Natural Sleep Patterns

Astronauts Launch Study on the Effects of Long Spaceflights on Sleep

For Young Workers, Insomnia Accounts for Four Weeks of Lost Productivity a Year

94% of Us Drink Caffeinated Beverages. But What Does it do to Our Sleep?

Nearly Half of Parents Give Their Kids Melatonin for Sleep

Clinical Trials Evaluate Experimental Drugs for Sleep Apnea

Breathing Fragrances While Sleeping Boosts Memory and Learning

Experts Develop Sleep Guidelines Uniquely Designed For Shift Workers

Our Brains Can Age as Much as Two Years With No Sleep for 24 Hours

Good Sleep Linked to Longer Life

Study Shows Keto Diet Can Help You Sleep Better

When Wildfires Burn, We Lose 1.5 Hours of Sleep Each Night

Social Media Dominates Pre-Bedtime Routine for U.S. Adults, Survey Finds

Hidden Sleep Crisis: Unhoused Americans Struggle For Their Health

Maternity Care Deserts: Home to Sleepless Nights, Exhausted Days

Searching For Sleep Solutions When Working From Home

Can't Eat, Can't Sleep: Rest Doesn't Come Easy in a Food Desert

Fewer Than 2% Of Adults Are in a Sleep Divorce. But Do They Sleep Better?

How Often Do We Eat Before Bed, and How Bad Is It for Us?

We Actually Sleep 10 More Minutes When It Snows

Melatonin Searches Spike Every Winter

Why Can't Hawaii Sleep? And What Makes the Top States For Sleep So Good?

Painsomnia Steals 51.5 Minutes of Our Sleep Every Night. How Do We Cope?

For 70%+ of Us, Sleep Habits Run in the Household

How Gamers Actually Sleep

It Ain’t the Turkey: We Lose 11 Minutes of Sleep on Thanksgiving

Do We Lose Sleep to Seasonal Affective Disorder?

We May Be Showering All Wrong, at Least When It Comes to Sleep

What Do We Really Think About Adults Who Sleep In?

How Much Melatonin Do We Really Take?

Who's Napping, How Long, and What Does It Mean for Our Health?

Sleep Apnea May Increase Risk of COVID-19 Severity

One-Third of Us Lose Sleep to the 'Sunday Scaries.' Here's How To Get It Back

Having Your Own Room as a Kid May Be Worth 28 Minutes of Sleep

Saving Lives and Losing Sleep? How Nurses' Sleep Has Changed Since COVID-19

Untangling the Web of Babies' Sleep, Moms' Sleep, and Depression

The Structural Inequality of Sleep: An Interview With Dr. Dayna Johnson

Do We Sleep Better in Airbnbs or Hotels?

Sleep Inequity Takes Center Stage in SIDS Recommendations

Why Are We All Still Watching TV Right Before Bed?

New Rules May Change the Game For Some Baby Sleep Products

Older Adults May Improve Deep Sleep With Noise

Raising a Rested Child: An Interview with Dr. Chris Winter

Lifting Weights May Help You Sleep Better Than Cardio

Noise During Sleep Affects Your Heart, Study Finds

Fostering Sleep in the Family: An Interview With Dave Gibson

FDA Warns Against Certain At-Home Cleaners for Your CPAP Machine

Wildfires and Smoke: How to Protect Your Sleep

An Education Gap Is the Sleep Gap: an Interview With Dr. Connor Sheehan

Can Tracking Your Child’s Sleep Give a Look Into Their Upcoming Day?

Sleep Is Social: An Interview With Dr. Wendy Troxel

New Study Shows Insomnia More Common in COVID-19 Survivors

Other articles of interest, sleep deprivation, bedroom environment, sleep hygiene.

EducationalWave

Pros and Cons of Starting School Later in the Day

Hey there, curious minds! Imagine a world where school starts a bit later—more zzz’s, yay! Benefits include improved grades , focus, and mental well-being. Think better mood, less stress, and more alertness. Students sparkle with higher attendance and enthusiasm. But hold your horses; challenges like balancing homework and after-school activities pop up. Adjusting family schedules might mean evening chaos or relaxed mornings. And hey, there’s even a potential learning curve with shorter classes or rushed lessons. Intrigued? There’s a whole fascinating world of pros and cons waiting to be explored!

Table of Contents

• Improved academic performance with increased alertness and focus.
• Enhanced mental well-being and reduced stress levels.
• Increased attendance rates and student engagement.
• Better sleep quality and alignment with natural circadian rhythms.
• Potential disruptions in daily routines and extracurricular activities.

Academic Performance Improvement

Implementing a later start time for school has shown promising results in enhancing academic performance among students. Research indicates that when students are able to get more sleep and start their day a bit later, their focus, concentration , and overall alertness in class improve greatly.

Imagine not having to drag yourself out of bed in the wee hours of the morning, feeling like a zombie as you stumble through your first classes. With a later start time, students have the opportunity to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead. This newfound energy translates into better participation, improved grades, and a more positive attitude towards learning.

Teachers have also noticed the difference, with students showing more engagement and enthusiasm during lessons. So, if you ever find yourself hitting the snooze button one too many times in the morning, just remember – a later school start time might be the key to unleashing your full academic potential!

Enhanced Mental Well-being

Research has also highlighted the significant positive impact of a later school start time on students’ mental well-being . Imagine waking up with the sun shining, birds chirping, and feeling refreshed as you begin your school day. Starting school later allows students to get the recommended amount of sleep, leading to improved mood , reduced stress levels , and enhanced mental clarity . When students are well-rested, they can better focus in class, retain information more effectively, and even have a brighter outlook on life.

Furthermore, a later start time provides students with a sense of autonomy and control over their schedule, promoting feelings of independence and responsibility. This shift can lead to increased self-confidence and a greater sense of well-being. Students are more likely to engage in extracurricular activities, spend time with friends, and pursue hobbies when they are not rushing to school half-asleep.

In essence, by prioritizing students’ mental well-being through a later school start time, schools can create a nurturing environment that fosters overall growth and development.

Increased Attendance Rates

Let’s talk about the importance of attendance rates when it comes to starting school later in the day.

Imagine a world where students enthusiastically make their way to school, excited for the day ahead, all because they had that extra bit of time in the morning.

We’ll explore how a later start time can lead to improved attendance rates, highlighting the benefits it brings to both students and schools, while also acknowledging the challenges that may arise in making this shift.

Attendance Rates Impact

The shift to a later start time for school has shown a notable increase in attendance rates among students. This positive change has been a game-changer for many schools, with sleepyheads now making it to class on time!

Imagine a world where students stroll into school bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to conquer the day. Well, that’s the reality when school starts a bit later. No more dragging feet, heavy eyes, and late arrivals. Students are more alert, focused , and enthusiastic to learn when they’ve had a chance to catch those extra Z’s in the morning.

It’s like a magical spell has been cast, turning reluctant attendees into enthusiastic participants. Teachers are thrilled to see more full classrooms, vibrant with energy and curiosity.

The impact on attendance rates is undeniable, showing that a simple change in start time can make a world of difference in student engagement and success.

Benefits of Later Start

An undeniable improvement in student attendance rates has been observed with the implementation of a later start time for school. This change has led to a variety of benefits that contribute to a more positive and engaging learning environment.

Here are three key advantages of starting school later:

• Increased Alertness: With a later start time, students are more likely to get the recommended amount of sleep, leading to improved focus and alertness during classes. Say goodbye to those droopy eyelids and hello to active participation!
• Reduced Tardiness: Starting school later allows students more time to wake up, get ready, and commute to school without feeling rushed. This extra time helps in reducing the number of late arrivals, ensuring a smoother start to the day for everyone.
• Enhanced Academic Performance: By being well-rested and punctual, students are better equipped to absorb information and actively engage in their studies. This can lead to improved academic performance and a more positive attitude towards learning.

These benefits show that a later start time can truly make a difference in student attendance rates and overall educational experience.

Challenges of Late Start

Challenges arise when considering the impact of a later start time on increased attendance rates in schools. While the idea of more students showing up on time sounds like a dream come true for teachers, the reality is a bit more complex. Some argue that pushing the start time later could lead to students feeling like they have more leeway to arrive late, thinking, ‘Oh, it’s not that early anyway.’ This casual approach might backfire, causing attendance rates to drop rather than rise.

Moreover, students who rely on public transportation might face difficulties with the new schedule. Buses and trains might not align perfectly with the adjusted start time, leading to potential delays and missed classes .

Additionally, extracurricular activities held after school could be affected, as a delayed start means a delayed end, potentially conflicting with sports practices or club meetings.

Finding a balance between a later start time and ensuring consistent attendance is critical . While the benefits of a later start are enticing, schools must navigate these challenges to make sure the change truly enhances the overall educational experience .

Better Sleep Quality

Research indicates that starting school later in the day has been linked to improved sleep quality among students. This significant change is vital for the overall well-being and academic performance of young learners.

Here are three ways in which a later start time can lead to better sleep quality:

• Increased Sleep Duration :

With a later start to the school day, students have the opportunity to get more hours of sleep each night. This additional rest can help them feel more refreshed and alert during classes, leading to improved focus and productivity.

• Enhanced Sleep Patterns :

By allowing students to wake up later, their sleep cycles can align more closely with their natural circadian rhythms. This alignment can result in better-quality sleep, making it easier for students to fall asleep and wake up feeling well-rested.

• Reduced Sleep Deprivation :

Starting school later can help reduce the overall levels of sleep deprivation among students. Adequate sleep is essential for physical health, mental well-being, and cognitive function, so giving students the opportunity to sleep longer can have a positive impact on their overall health and academic success.

Impact on After-School Activities

Let’s talk about the exciting world of after-school activities !

Starting school later can mean more time for afternoon sports, clubs, and hobbies. With a refreshed mind from extra sleep, students can also use this time for productive homework and study sessions to excel academically.

Afternoon Sports and Clubs

Participating in afternoon sports and clubs can greatly enhance students’ after-school experiences and foster a sense of community within the school environment. The lively buzz of students hustling to their soccer practice, the laughter echoing from drama club rehearsals, and the competitive spirit of the debate team all contribute to a vibrant school atmosphere that is hard to resist.

Here are three ways afternoon sports and clubs make a difference:

• Building Friendships : Joining a team or club opens up opportunities to meet like-minded peers who share your interests. These bonds formed through shared experiences can last a lifetime, creating a support system within the school.
• Developing Skills : Whether you’re perfecting your jump shot on the basketball court or learning the intricacies of coding in the computer club, afternoon activities provide a platform to hone your skills outside the classroom.
• Boosting Confidence : Achieving personal goals, winning a match, or simply mastering a new dance routine can do wonders for self-esteem. These victories, big or small, contribute to a student’s overall confidence and well-being.

Homework and Study Time

Balancing homework and study time with participation in after-school activities can present challenges for students seeking to excel academically while engaging in extracurricular pursuits. The juggling act between hitting the books and hitting the field or stage can sometimes feel as tricky as trying to pat your head and rub your belly simultaneously.

Picture this: you’ve got a math assignment that’s as long as a giraffe’s neck due tomorrow, but you’ve also got basketball practice where you need to work on your three-pointers . It’s like trying to decide between eating your veggies or devouring dessert first!

When the school day ends, it’s like the starting pistol in a race – time to sprint to your activities, but wait, there’s still the marathon of homework waiting at the finish line. It’s a real-life game of chess, where each move influences the next – sacrifice a bit of study time for drama club , but risk falling behind in science class.

Finding the right balance is like mixing the perfect recipe; too much of one ingredient can spoil the dish. So, how do you make it work? Let’s dive in and uncover the secrets to mastering this academic-activity tango !

Family Schedule Adjustments

Adjusting family schedules to accommodate a later start time for school can require careful planning and consideration of various daily routines and commitments. When the school day begins later, families may need to make the following adjustments:

• Morning Madness Makeover:

With a later start time, mornings can become more relaxed and less rushed. Families may have the luxury of enjoying a leisurely breakfast together or squeezing in some extra Zzzs before the day kicks off.

• Afternoon Activities Shuffle:

After-school programs, sports practices, and other extracurricular activities might need to be rescheduled to fit the new school hours. This could mean juggling pick-up times and coordinating with coaches or instructors.

• Dinnertime Dilemma:

A later school end time could push back dinnertime, affecting family meals. Parents may need to plan meals that can be prepared quickly or consider meal prepping in advance to make sure everyone is well-fed without sacrificing quality family time around the table.

Potential Learning Disruptions

Given the shift in daily routines and schedules due to a later start time for school, it is crucial to address the potential learning disruptions that may arise from this adjustment. One major concern is that pushing the start time back could lead to shorter class periods or a rushed curriculum . Imagine trying to cram all your learning into a shorter timeframe – it’s like trying to fit a week’s worth of chores into an hour! This rushed feeling might make it harder for students to absorb information fully.

Moreover, a delayed start could disrupt extracurricular activities or part-time jobs that students engage in after school. For example, if you’re used to heading straight from school to soccer practice or your part-time job, a later start might throw a wrench in your plans. Balancing academics with other commitments becomes trickier when the school day extends later into the afternoon.

This disruption could impact not only your grades but also your overall well-being . So, it’s essential to ponder how altering the school schedule might affect your daily routine and learning experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will starting school later affect transportation schedules.

Starting school later may impact transportation schedules by potentially requiring adjustments to bus routes and pick-up times. Schools, parents, and transportation departments would need to collaborate to guarantee a smooth shift and minimize disruptions.

How Will Starting School Later Impact Breakfast Programs?

Starting school later may impact breakfast programs by providing students more time to eat a nutritious meal at home or in school. It could lead to improved attendance, concentration, and overall academic performance due to better nourishment.

What Adjustments Are Needed for School Staff Schedules?

Adjustments required for school staff schedules when starting school later involve revising start and end times, coordinating transportation, modifying meal service hours, reorganizing extracurricular activities, ensuring adequate supervision, and aligning professional development opportunities with the new schedule.

Can Starting School Later Affect Extracurricular Activities?

Starting school later can impact extracurricular activities by potentially allowing students more time for participation. However, it may also lead to scheduling conflicts with after-school programs or sports events, requiring coordination and adjustments.

How Will a Later Start Time Impact School Meal Services?

A later start time can impact school meal services by potentially requiring adjustments to meal preparation schedules, delivery logistics, and staff availability. Coordination with food suppliers and students’ needs would be essential.

In conclusion, starting school later in the day can have both positive and negative effects on students.

From improved academic performance and mental well-being to potential disruptions in learning, it’s important for schools to consider all aspects before making any changes to the start times.

Ultimately, finding a balance between the benefits and drawbacks is key in ensuring that students can thrive academically and personally.

Related Posts:

• Pros and Cons of Homework
• Pros and Cons of Night Turnout for Horses
• Pros and Cons of No Homework
• Pros and Cons of Starting School Early in the Morning
• Pros and Cons of Pop up Drains
• Pros and Cons of Students Getting Paid for Good Grades
• Pros and Cons of Horse Slaughter
• 20 Pros and Cons of Problem-oriented policing (POP)
• Pros and Cons of Pass Fail Grading System

Related posts:

• Pros and Cons of Inspire Sleep
• 20 Pros and Cons of Generac Generators
• Pros and Cons of Running Start
• Pros and Cons of Teachers Searching Students Lockers
• Pros and Cons of Open Campus Lunch
• Pros and Cons of Ferber Method
• Pros and Cons of Early College High School
• Pros and Cons of in School Suspension
• Pros and Cons of Stove Under Window
• Pros and Cons of a New School

Educational Wave Team

Subscriber Only Resources

Access this article and hundreds more like it with a subscription to Junior Scholastic magazine.

Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.6, RH.6-8.8, WHST.6-8.1, WHST.6-8.5, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.6, RI.6-8.8, RI.6-8.10, W.6-8.1, W.6-8.5, SL.6-8.1

NCSS: Individual Development and Identity • Power, Authority, and Governance

Article Options

Presentation View

FatCamera/Getty Images

We Write It, You Decide

Should your school day start later, many students have to rise and shine before dawn to get to their first class on time. should schools start later to give teens more rest .

As your phone’s alarm blares, you slowly open one eye. How can it be morning already? It seems like it was only a few hours ago that you finished your homework.

You close your eyes for just five more minutes, but then your mom bangs on the door: “Time to get up or you’ll miss the bus!”

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many teens struggle to get enough sleep. But when schools switched to remote learning in 2020 because of the pandemic, classes often began later. That, combined with many students not having to commute to school, allowed teens to get some extra shut-eye.

Now, as in-person classes resume, a number of schools are going back to their earlier start times. But some kids are trying to change that. For example, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a group of students have formed an organization called Cherry Hill Students for Later School Start Times. It wants local middle and high schools to push back the start of the school day to 8:30 a.m. (Currently, middle schools in Cherry Hill start at 8 a.m., and high schools start at 7:30.) 

In fact, schools in several states have switched to later start times in recent years. Research shows that inadequate sleep can negatively affect students’ health and grades. 

But not everyone thinks kids should be sleeping in. Opponents say starting classes later is expensive for school districts and limits students’ time for after-school activities.

Do we need a wake-up call when it comes to school start times? Keep reading, then decide what you think.

Let Kids Sleep In

Starting the school day too early can deprive teens of much-needed sleep, experts say. According to the Sleep Foundation, nearly 60 percent of middle school students and more than 70 percent of high school students in the U.S. aren’t getting the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night. 

Studies show that well-rested teens are more likely to get good grades and less likely to be in car accidents or suffer from depression.

Earliest recommended start time for middle and high schools

SOURCE: American Academy of Pediatrics

What’s more, experts say, teens are biologically wired to fall asleep later at night. As a result, some students may get as few as five hours of sleep before they need to be up for their first class.

As Aiden Rood, the co-founder of Cherry Hill Students for Later School Start Times, explains: “Kids are safer and healthier in general when they start later, and they do better in school.”

How to Wake Up Energized

Teens are wired to stay up late and sleep in. for days when that isn’t possible (as in school days), follow this routine to get more sleep., 1.5 hours before bed .

TAKE A SHOWER: It’ll help you relax while still giving you time to cool down before bed. (When you’re too warm, it’s harder to nod off.)

1 hour before bed

POWER DOWN: The blue light that screens emit tricks your brain into thinking it’s daytime. Time to send that last text message!

30 minutes before bed

RELAX: A racing mind can make it harder to fall asleep, so do something calming, such as stretching or reading a book.

SOURCE: Mary Carskadon, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University; Janet Kennedy, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and founder of NYC Sleep Doctor

You Snooze, You Lose?

Many school districts, however, say delaying the start of the school day would create a number of challenges. 

For starters, districts would have to reschedule school buses—and perhaps pay for more of them. There’s also the concern that later school start times could leave some kids walking home in the dark. 

Shifting school hours could also create child care problems for some parents. In addition, opponents say, later school start times would leave teens with fewer hours for after-school activities and homework. 

Actual average start time for public middle and high schools  

SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

That’s what Erin Isherwood, a parent in Chico, California, is worried about. The start time at her kids’ high school was pushed back 45 minutes this year.

“My son has an exercise class that he absolutely loves at a gym” that was right after school last year, she explains. “[Now] he can’t go.”

Think It Over

Consider the pros and cons of pushing back school start times. Would a later schedule help you get more sleep? Or do you worry that it would leave you with less time for after-school activities? 

SKILL SPOTLIGHT: Argument Writing

Should classes at your school start later in the day? Why or why not? Write an argument essay that supports your point of view, using details from the article and your own experiences.

Should your school day start later?

19 Should School Start Later in the Morning Pros and Cons

Do your kids struggle to wake up in the morning? It may not be that they are lazy. They could be legitimately tired. For teens, anything less than 8.5 hours of sleep per night could be considered detrimental to their health, according to information released by the American Academy of Pediatrics. For younger children, even more sleep per night may be required.

Poor sleep has caused an increase reliance on caffeine products. There is a direct link between sleep deprivations and a poor academic performance. Over time, poor sleep can increase the risk of developing an alcohol or tobacco dependency.

It isn’t an issue of going to bed earlier for teens either. Even when kids are tired, they struggle to fall asleep earlier because their circadian rhythms are establishing their internal routine.

Just delaying school by 30 minutes may have a positive impact for a child’s education. Here are some of the key pros and cons to consider when looking at the idea of starting school later.

List of the Pros of Starting School Later

1. It could reduce the amount of time kids are left alone. Teens are often left alone at home at the end of the day because of the working schedules of their parents. That time alone invites the possibility of making decisions that are not necessarily healthy. Starting school later in the morning would create a later release time in the afternoon, which could reduce the amount of time some teens are left on their own.

2. It would reduce health-related issues that come with a lack of sleep. Sleep deprivation can cause a number of different bothersome symptoms in kids of any age. A loss of sleep disrupts the normal functioning of a child’s attention span. They can struggle to focus on their environment, sensory inputs, and the classroom. A lack of sleep creates a delayed reaction time, irritability, depressed mood, forgetfulness, clumsiness, and trouble learning new concepts.

3. It could reduce caffeine dependence. Depending on the type of coffee bean being used, a cup of brewed coffee in the morning may have up to 175mg of caffeine in it. That’s more caffeine than some energy drinks provide. Long-term side effects of using caffeine may include severe dehydrations, chronic panic attacks, and high levels of adrenaline and cortisol. High levels of caffeine also prevent reabsorption of sodium, which can lead to future medical issues. With a later start time and more sleep, some of these issues could begin to go away.

4. It could boost individual academic performance. When there is adequate sleeping time available for children, then there is an associated rise in that student’s grades. Not only does this improve the focus of the child, it gives them time to process the information around them in the classroom environment. By removing the stress stimulus from the environment, the cortisol levels can remain at normal levels for the student, reducing the risks of distraction and hyperactivity. In 1998, Dr. Amy Wolfson, Professor of Psychology at Loyola University in Maryland, and Dr. Mary Carskadon, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, found that students with grade averages of C or under were getting 25 fewer minutes of sleep each night compared to students with higher grades.

5. It allows students to cope with their academic responsibilities. The University of Minnesota discovered that students who have a later start time to their school day have better overall test scores, grades, and consistency in core subject areas compared to students who go to school on a traditional schedule. Students also have improved attendance rates, reduced truancy, and reduced dropout rates when their school responsibilities match better with their biological clocks.

6. It gives students a chance to eat breakfast. One of the first things that goes away when students are in a rush to get to school is a healthy breakfast. By pushing the start time later in the day, there is a better chance to have time to eat something healthier than a prepackaged breakfast item. Reducing the prevalence of on-the-go eating options can promote a healthier weight and better personal nutrition, which further increases the chances of a positive individual learning experience.

7. It could reduce vehicular accidents for teens. Many teens drive themselves to school. Waking up too early, without enough sleep the night before, creates an added risk to the driving experience. AAA reports that driver drowsiness is responsible for an average of 100,000 vehicular accidents every year. Moving the start time of school wouldn’t resolve the issue of texting or talking while driving, but it would reduce the issues of driver drowsiness for many teens.

8. It would reduce the number of mood changes teens experience. Teens are often criticized for their mood swings or moody behavior. Sometimes, these behaviors are associated with depression or some other psychological disorder. In reality, the teen may be suffering from ongoing sleep deprivation. When students (or anyone) gets enough sleep, their mood remains stabilized throughout the day, which encourages a higher level of overall motivation.

9. It would reduce common safety issues for students. One of the biggest safety issues students face is one that most people don’t think about too often. Early start times for a school, sometimes before 8am, require children to get to school in the dark. They might be waiting at a bus stop in the dark. For younger children, they also have the threat of being home alone after school if there are no daycare or after school options. Starting school at a later time reduces all of these issues, even if it does put more pressure on the morning routine for parents.

10. It would provide more recovery time for students. Many extracurricular activities occur after the regular school day, such as a sporting event. Giving students a later start time would allow them to still participate in these activities, while giving them more recovery time each overnight for rest and healing. Students engaged in after school activities typically require more time to wind down to reach a state of sleep as well, and this schedule change would accommodate their needs.

List of the Cons of Starting School Later

1. It would impact the schedules of working families. Many junior high and high schools have a start time of 8am in the United States. Most working parents are required to report to work by 8am as well. That allows a small window of time to either drive the student to the school or have them get on the bus. Advancing the time by 30 minutes as proposed, to 8:30am, would make it difficult for many parents to get to work on time.

2. It could create transportation issues for the school district. Many elementary schools in the United States offer a start time of 9am. That is done to provide younger students with enough time to sleep each night and ease transportation congestion within the district. By moving the start time of the junior high and high schools to a later time, the only solution that doesn’t involve more transportation investments is to move the elementary school start time backward by the same amount of time, creating new learning issues.

3. It would alter the release time for schools within the district. Many teens have after-school jobs which require them to report by a specific time. Many families depend upon their teens to watch younger children while the parents finish out their work day. Pushing the release time for a school district later in the morning would require students to stay later in the afternoon, which could create even more difficulties for families and the students themselves.

4. It would eliminate the ability to do some homework. If schools push their start time to later in the morning, then they are eliminating time for students to do homework. Students who are involved in sports or extracurricular school-sponsored activities may find themselves with a limited amount of time to complete their work each day. That would force them to stay up later to get their work done, which would then negate the benefits that having a later start time would be able to create.

5. It could encourage some teens to stay up later. Even if there are not any extracurricular activities for some teens after school, there would still be the temptation to stay up later each night because they could sleep in later the next morning. A change in the school schedule would require a buy-in from parents and guardians to help gain the benefits of extra sleep for their children. At the end of the day, however, you really can’t force anyone to fall asleep, even if you require them to be in their room by a certain time.

6. It reduces tutoring opportunities. With a later release time from starting school later, students have fewer chances to access tutoring resources they may need for difficult subjects. Many after school tutoring programs are operated by volunteers that have finite time resources. Changing the school schedule will change their schedule, which may make it difficult to continue providing services during the week. That would push tutoring needs to the weekend, where more students may be less likely to engage with the service.

7. It requires changes to personal habits to be effective. The benefits of a later school start time complement how the circadian rhythms of teens develop. If teens are not making healthy decisions that support this development, then there are no benefits to starting school times later. Teens would need to limit their exposure to artificial light resources to encourage melatonin development. They would need to eat healthy foods at appropriate times to encourage sleep. They would need to avoid caffeine products after lunch to prevent sleep delays. Otherwise, the circadian rhythms would just be delayed, and the same issues seen today with earlier school start times would still be present.

8. It would reduce resource access. Most community resources do not open until 9am or later. Even if schools push a start time from 8am to 9am, there would be no added benefit to accessing the local library, for example, or a similar resource. That 60 minutes would be made up at the end of the day, which would actually reduce the amount of time students would have. That, in turn, would reduce opportunities for extracurricular learning or activities that enrich the lives of many students under the current schedule.

9. It would alter teacher schedules as well. Teachers already work an extended day before and after their students arrive. Shifting the time forward by an hour could alter their family schedules in a negative way as well.

These pros and cons of starting the school day at a later time have passionate defenders on both sides of the debate. There are clearly some benefits that would become possible to access with a later starting time. There are also some clear challenges that families, teens, and school districts would face when deciding to pursue this idea. It may not be right for every district, family, or student, but it may also be the perfect solution for those who are struggling with their education.

24/7 writing help on your phone

To install StudyMoose App tap and then “Add to Home Screen”

Should School Day Start Later?

Save to my list

Remove from my list

Should School Day Start Later?. (2020, Sep 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/should-school-day-start-later-essay

"Should School Day Start Later?." StudyMoose , 9 Sep 2020, https://studymoose.com/should-school-day-start-later-essay

StudyMoose. (2020). Should School Day Start Later? . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/should-school-day-start-later-essay [Accessed: 16 Aug. 2024]

"Should School Day Start Later?." StudyMoose, Sep 09, 2020. Accessed August 16, 2024. https://studymoose.com/should-school-day-start-later-essay

"Should School Day Start Later?," StudyMoose , 09-Sep-2020. [Online]. Available: https://studymoose.com/should-school-day-start-later-essay. [Accessed: 16-Aug-2024]

StudyMoose. (2020). Should School Day Start Later? . [Online]. Available at: https://studymoose.com/should-school-day-start-later-essay [Accessed: 16-Aug-2024]

• Starting School Later: Why Should School Start Later Pages: 2 (536 words)
• Why School Should Start Later? Pages: 2 (396 words)
• School Should Start Later Pages: 2 (479 words)
• Reasons Why School Should Start Later Pages: 3 (724 words)
• School Should Start Later: The Benefits And Advantages Pages: 3 (864 words)
• Why Secondary Schools Should Start Later in Hong Kong Pages: 5 (1358 words)
• Teen Sleep: Why Schools Should Start Later - Wendy Troxel TED Talk Pages: 2 (480 words)
• Why Do Schools Should Begin Later In Mornings Pages: 3 (631 words)
• School Starting Later: Reasons For This Proposal Pages: 4 (974 words)
• A Rare and Refreshing Misty Morning in Yangon: A Serene Start to a New Day Pages: 2 (473 words)

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

15 Reasons Why School Should Start Earlier (Top Benefits!)

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

The debate over school start times often focuses on the many reasons school should start later . However, there are plenty of debate arguments for why school should actually start earlier.

Here are 10 possible reasons why schools should stick with an earlier start time.

• Cuts transportation costs
• Gets students to school faster
• Has benefits for work schedules
• Lets districts pool resources more effectively
• Allows more free time
• Creates academic advantages
• Is safer for travel
• Allows for afterschool jobs
• Establishes a routine
• Prompts a healthy lifestyle
• There are no clear benefits of starting later
• Students don’t see their parents as much
• Allows time for after-school sports
• Negates the need for daylight savings time
• Allows teachers to do more with their day

Starting earlier has benefits for kids of all ages and serves the additional purpose of saving the school district a good amount of money. The rest of this article will discuss the benefits of starting school early.

Get a Pdf of this article for class

Enjoy subscriber-only access to this article’s pdf

Reasons Why School should Start Earlier

1. early start times cost less for schools.

One of the main reasons schools haven’t instituted later start times is the associated costs.

For example, Greenwich school district conducted studies into pushing back start times after reading the evidence supporting later start times. However, they found that any scenario would lead to increased costs. Here was one key finding:

“Pushing every school’s start back by 30 minutes to 90 minutes would involve between 10 and 19 extra buses, requiring an additional outlay each year from approximately $760,000 to some $1.5 million.”

Similarly, staggered bus routes – where high schools start earlier and elementary schools stay the same – would lead to more time for the busses to complete their routes, but would increase costs for insurance, fuel, and wages for drivers.

2. Students can Skip the Traffic

As well as saving the school money on fuel, early morning start times help to avoid the traffic.

Avoiding traffic has abundant benefits. For one thing, it will mean there is less of a chance that the busses and cars will get caught in traffic jams, meaning students will theoretically turn up to class on time more often.

This does, of course, assume that students will make it to the earlier bus and not accidentally sleep in.

However, keep in mind that if everyone starts driving on the roads earlier to get their kids to school, the traffic may shift with the changes in school times, negating this benefit.

3. Has Benefits for Work Schedules

Another good benefit of starting school earlier is that it can blend more effectively with parents work schedules.

For students who can’t be left unattended, parents have to pay out of pocket for daycare or babysitting services if they leave the house well before their child is picked up for school.

An earlier start could mean that parents can get the students to school and then get on with their days – going to work, doing early shopping, and so forth.

Of course, the downside here is that an early start time may lead to an early ending time, which just pushes back the scheduling clashes into the afternoon.

4. It Lets Districts Pool Resources More Effectively

There’s always a need for good bus drivers, and sharing buses is common practice in a school district.

Unfortunately, buses are expensive to run and can only be used for one route at a time. Starting earlier in the morning, particularly for grade students, allows busses to be available for picking up students who have later start times.

If all students began at the same time, the district would need to have buses and drivers available to meet the demand for all those students at the same time.

By giving grade school students an earlier start, the rest of the district has transportation resources available for students.

However, as noted earlier, this would also be associated with higher costs for transit.

5. Allows More Free Time

Between school, jobs, and team practices, students today are swamped with work. This leads to the concept of the over-scheduled child .

While starting early might be a bit of a bummer for them, doing so ensures that they finish earlier, too, allowing them to pursue afterschool activities, manage homework, and still enjoy their free time without feeling like they have no personal time.

By giving children more free time, they may in fact get time to play, be creative, and potentially even get more sleep (Glauser, 2018).

6. You Get More into the Day

Starting early means you can fit more into your day. And while adults often burn out part-way through the day, adolescents can power through well into the afternoon.

As a result, by sending children to school early, we can get them to fit more into their days, and even potentially open up debates about having 4-day school weeks.

This reasoning is likely why schools do start so early, with 93% of high schools and over 80% of middle schools starting prior to 8:30a.m.

(Note: For a counterargument , consider the abundance of evidence showing school-age children’s brainpower is best around mid-morning – see: Dikker et al., 2020).

7. Is Safer for Travel

People advocating for later school starts often point out that sleep deprivation makes early morning driving dangerous for teenagers (Taheri & Arabameri, 2012).

While this evaluation is correct, it doesn’t consider the other side of the proverbial coin: later commutes home from work are also dangerous, especially in urban environments.

Starting school earlier may be able to give students space to drive to and from school with less traffic which could make the streets safer.

8. Allows for Afterschool Jobs

For high school students preparing for the future, an afterschool job is a major part of growing their savings early.

Schools that start earlier are usually finished in time for high school students to pick up a part time job in their local area.

Not only does a job earn them valuable money for college, but it also teaches them discipline and responsibility in a work environment.

9. Establishes a Routine

Establishing a routine is difficult as an adult, much less as a child, but for students of all ages, establishing an “early to bed, early to rise” mentality has numerous health benefits .

It enables students to mentally prepare themselves for the day and set up a routine to transition into adulthood.

Getting up early ensures that students are ready for a bed at a decent time, avoiding some risky situations often associated with detrimental behavior.

10. Prompts a Healthy Lifestyle

Schools starting earlier not only helps students establish a morning routine, but it also benefits their lifestyle as whole.

Students who adapt to getting up early, preparing for the day, and balancing their daily schedule are more prepared for adulthood.

Creating a healthy school-life balance by understanding what’s expected of them, tackling homework, and participating in extra-curricular activities translates to a healthy work-life balance in the future.

11. There’s no Clear Benefit to Starting Later

While there is some scattered evidence of making school start times later, the most extensive systematic review on this topic found there isn’t enough evidence to make start times later.

In other words, if you’re debating the topic of school start times and you’re on the side of earlier start times, make sure you argue at least the point that there’s no need to make start times later.

As Marx et al. (2017, p. 10) argue in their systematic review:

“We cannot be confident about the effects of later school start times.”

Therefore, there needs to be much clearer and far less biased studies on school start times before making school start times later.

12. Students may see their parents more

A study (Hinrichs, 2011) of schools that start later found that late start times lead to less interaction between children and their parents.

The study found:

“…later school start times may be associated with decreased morning interactions between parents and children.” (Marx et al., 2017, p. 43)

An earlier start time, on the other hand, may lead to more interaction because the parents and children will have more evening and afternoon time to spend together.

Here, the assumption is that late start times just mean the children sleep in; while early start times mean the children get up, get their day done, and then can spend some time with their families.

13. Allows time for after-school developmental activities

If school starts earlier and ends earlier, then society can start structuring after-school activities for children that allow for holistic development of children.

This may include structuring mid-afternoon sessions for children’s development in sporting, play, creative, artistic, and musical pursuits.

We could envisage a world where formal schooling ends and students go on to structured activities of their choice associated with pursuing their creative or sporting interests. This may help to raise a society that’s not just focused on academic standards, but also a more holistic experience of the diverse range of human pursuits.

14. Negates the need for daylight savings time

The rationale for daylight savings time is to allow people to have one extra hour of light in the evening during summer.

There is ample debate about the value of daylight savings time. But if students started and ended school earlier, then there wouldn’t be a need to squeeze an extra hour of sunlight into the day for children’s activities.

As a result, we can reduce one more argument about the benefits of daylight savings time.

15. Allows teachers to do more with their day

If teachers can finish their day of work by 2pm, they could schedule extra things into their afternoons.

At the moment, teachers spend their nights preparing classes for the next day. This can make their work-life balance very poor.

But if teachers finish their school day by 2pm, they can spend the next 3 hours preparing their next day’s classes and not bring school work home with them. This will increase their time with their families in the evenings.

Furthermore, as a teacher, I get frustrated that I can never book appointments at the bank or with the dentist because I am always working when they were open. But if I can get off work at 2pm, I can finally get to those appointments.

Transitioning to an early schedule can be challenging for many students, but at the end of the day, it’s often a decision made to benefit the school district as a whole.

Cutting back on transportation costs, pooling resources, and staggering busloads to and from school are some of the main reasons that schools, particularly grade schools, start so early in the morning.

Dikker, S., Haegens, S., Bevilacqua, D., Davidesco, I., Wan, L., Kaggen, L., … & Poeppel, D. (2020). Morning brain: real-world neural evidence that high school class times matter.  Social cognitive and affective neuroscience ,  15 (11), 1193-1202.

Glauser, W. (2018). Overscheduled and glued to screens—children are sleeping less than ever before. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 190 (48). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-5676

Hinrichs, P. (2011). When the bell tolls: The effects of school starting times on academic achievement.  Education Finance and Policy ,  6 (4), 486-507.

Marx, R., Tanner‐Smith, E. E., Davison, C. M., Ufholz, L. A., Freeman, J., Shankar, R., … & Hendrikx, S. (2017). Later school start times for supporting the education, health, and well‐being of high school students: a systematic review.  Campbell Systematic Reviews ,  13 (1), 1-99.

Taheri, M., & Arabameri, E. (2012). The effect of sleep deprivation on choice reaction time and anaerobic power of college student athletes. Asian journal of sports medicine, 3 (1), 15.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Number Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Word Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Outdoor Games for Kids
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 50 Incentives to Give to Students

4 thoughts on “15 Reasons Why School Should Start Earlier (Top Benefits!)”

This is so wrong on every level. 1. Sleep is known to be a very important part in learning new things. If students don’t get enough sleep, they wouldn’t be able to learn as effectively, therefore making schools much less effective than they could be. If your argument to that is “student can go to sleep earlier so they get more sleep” you are wrong for the following reasons: A. If they go to sleep earlier, they have less free time(because their day ends earlier). I don’t understand how this one fact gets ignored by literally everyone. B. Sleeping doesn’t work that way. You can’t just fall asleep whenever you want. To fall asleep, you need this hormone called melatonin. This hormone is not produced at will whenever you want to go to sleep. I guess you never understood biology, otherwise you would know that reflexive actions you body does aren’t always up to conscious decisions we make. And some people(like me) are not affected by melatonin pills. C. Insomnia is a thing that exists in some students. For people with insomnia, falling asleep is even harder than it is for most people. So unless schools want to discriminate against insomniacs, they should not expect everyone to come early. D. Since student need sleep to learn better, they probably won’t need as many lessons in each subject every week, making the school shorter(because there are less classes). Though I am not so sure that schools would notice this if it happened. 2. After-school activities would be moved forward if schools ended later. Because that’s when students would be available. In fact, those who participate would probably preform better, since they would be less tired. This seemed pretty obvious to me, but I guess you never thought about it, since you didn’t mention it. 3. Daily routines don’t have to start in the early morning, and a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to include waking up and going to be early. In fact, it’s probably unhealthy, since sleeping in the natural time when you feel tired is much better for your health than trying to force yourself to fall asleep to early and forcing yourself to wake up with an alarm clock. 4. Those who want to get up early still can, and they can have some free time in the morning before school, at home. As you can probably imagine, waking up and immediately having to get ready quickly to get to school on time is not a pleasant experience. Especially if you woke up late. So starting school later can make morning a lot less stressful.

I think these are plenty of good reasons for schools to start later. Fact: Finland’s education system is the best in the world, and they start later and end pretty quickly, so some of my points actually exist in real life, and show results.(not to say that starting late and finishing early is the main factor in Finland’s education system’s success, but that it obviously isn’t harmful to the students’ school lives, and that they don’t hate school.)

I hope you actually understood that there are plenty of good reasons to move school starting times forward, and that you understand that most people hate waking up early. Though adults do need to wake up early, the same standard should be held against children and adolescents, who’s brains are still developing and need sleep the most.

Good points Yael. The points presented in the article are possible debate points for students to critically engage with, not necessarily gospel… we also have a complementary article presenting some of your arguments against starting school earlier, that is linked to within this piece.

Thanks I needed this for my ap psych assignment

I agree. I am currently doing an assignment in school on why school start times should be changed. One of the biggest reasons I have found is that when teenagers hit puberty their body goes through something called phase delay. This is where their circadian rhythms shift back by about two hours. This means that most teenagers can’t fall asleep until 11pm.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Moving School Start Times to Help Teens Get More Sleep

How to challenge perceived barriers to later school start times..

Updated August 1, 2024 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

• Why Is Sleep Important?
• Take our Sleep Habits Test
• Find a sleep therapist near me
• Teens need more sleep. School districts can move school start times later to support teens.
• People often have concerns about moving school start times, but these are addressable.
• The data (and experience) suggests a change can be made with minimal negative impacts.
• Moving school start times will have a positive impact on teens' school outcomes and mental health.

This post was co-authored by Jessica Leigh Hamilton, Ph.D. and Ryan Shintani.

“I wake up and feel the warm glow of the sun shining bright on my face. Is it the weekend already? No! It’s 7:30 am on a Tuesday and time to get ready for school. Last year, when I woke up for school, it was 6:30 am–dark and desolate outside. But now that my school’s start time has been pushed back an hour, I get an extra hour of sleep. I wake up with the sun already out, something that I haven’t seen in an early school morning for as long as I can remember. The predawn darkness had always made me feel groggy, tired, and just a bit depressed . Since our school district moved back start times for our high school this year, I feel so much more energetic when I wake up in the morning. That extra hour of sleep, in combination with the sunlight, gives me the pep I need to start my day (and my parents love the extra hour in the morning too).” —Ryan, age 15, high-school sophomore

Getting adequate sleep (at least 8 hours per night for teens) has known benefits for physical and mental health and academic performance . So shouldn’t more schools shift their school start times to be aligned with teens’ natural biological clocks? Is it really necessary for kids to wake up in the cold, dark predawn hours during their biological night to go to school? The research shows that there are a lot of benefits in a later start day and very few to an earlier one. So why don’t more schools make this change?

The reality is that every school district is different and faces a myriad of perceived barriers to implementing later school start times. But, the truth is, if we really care about curbing the teen mental health crisis , perhaps we should be spending more time and energy on addressing these perceived barriers to ensure that kids get more sleep instead of the current focus on banning social media . (Note: My research focuses on social media, sleep, and suicide risk; see here for brief summary).

So what are the perceived barriers and how can we overcome them to do what’s best for teens?

Perceived Barrier 1: If we move school start times later, teens will just stay up later.

Fact: If we move school start times, teens will actually get more sleep .

I hear this one a lot from parents and educators. If teens know they can wake up later, won’t they just go to bed later? In short, the research says NO . Teens will actually go to bed around similar times, get better-quality sleep, and get at least 30 minutes more sleep per night, which has major benefits at this age.

Perceived Barrier 2: If we move school start times later, this will mess up scheduling of other activities.

Fact: If we move school start times later, schools can still accommodate extracurricular activities and after-school activities are minimally impacted .

This is a major concern we hear: “But what about the athletes? How can they still compete if they get out later? If kids get out of school later, how will they eat dinner and do homework within reasonable times?” These are reasonable concerns; our kids do a lot after school and we don’t want them getting home at 10 pm every night. However, Ryan’s school managed this by making classes a bit shorter than before, and they only finish school about 20 minutes later than before the later school start times. Teens are still learning and afterschool activities do not have to be impacted.

Perceived Barrier 3: If we move school start times later, transportation needs to be completely revamped.

Fact: If we move school start times later, transportation can be adjusted with other school start times, pending district needs.

While there might be concerns about an increased number of buses and drivers needed at peak times, the total number of buses and bus drivers will not necessarily need to change. In fact, transportation costs can actually decrease . And superintendents who have made the change to later school start times have said that it made their transportation function better than in prior years, due to the shorter school day and more time in between routes. (See here for their testimonial.)

Perceived Barrier 4: If we move school start times later, teacher contracts will need to be adjusted.

Fact: If we move school start times later, teacher contracts and schedules can be minimally impacted.

As noted, Ryan’s school shortened each class and the school day ended just 20 minutes later than usual. This change in schedule actually led to a net decrease in the total number of hours in school, so teacher contracts can remain unaffected. Furthermore, many teachers support the later school start times for both their students’ and their own health and wellness.

Perceived Barrier 5: If we move school start times later, students will get used to sleeping in and won’t be ready for the real world.

Fact: If we move school start times later, students’ sleep will be aligned with their circadian rhythms , improving their attendance and graduation rates .

Compared to adults, adolescent physiology makes them fall asleep later. Specifically, melatonin release from the brain starts later in the day for teens, making it harder to fall asleep earlier (and therefore sleep long enough at night). In order for children to succeed as working professionals, they have to first succeed in school, and later school start times help them do that. When they get older, in their 20s, their circadian rhythms begin to resemble that of a typical adult, which will be better aligned with a work schedule.

In short, the research is clear: Moving school start times benefits teens . They get more sleep, feel better , drive better—they have fewer accidents, and perform better in school and in sports . Are there challenges to implementing later school start times? Sure. But should these stand in the way of doing what’s best for our kids? Absolutely not.

To get started on making these changes:

• Learn more about the importance of sleep for teens. Get the data you need to back it up; for example, watch videos to learn more about the importance of sleep , myths about teen sleep , and why all teens can't just "go to bed early "). Also, check out our research-backed blog on why sleep matters.
• Organize groups in your community with interested parents (and teens).
• Go to your local school board meeting to discuss the issue (which may help with step 2) and watch this video to hear from schools who made the change.
• Involve researchers and pediatricians on these topics to offer support and resources.
• Support and discuss the current legislation to move school start times later in your area. (See this example from New Jersey .)

Together, we can make sleep a priority for teens—and hopefully adults, too.

Ryan Shintani is a Ridgewood High School junior in New Jersey who is passionate about teen sleep and mental health. He also is a member of The Hamilton Lab RISE Team, our youth advisory board.

Jessica Leigh Hamilton, Ph.D., (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Psychology. Her research aims to identify risk factors for the development and worsening of depression and suicidality (i.e., suicidal thoughts and behavior) among adolescents.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Sticking up for yourself is no easy task. But there are concrete skills you can use to hone your assertiveness and advocate for yourself.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Summer's in full swing and school's open: Why the great divide on start dates?

Melodie Wright's kids were among the first in the country to return to school. Her son started 10th grade and her daughter began second grade in Birmingham, Alabama, the first full week of August, more than six weeks before the official end of summer.

Millions of students across the country, including in Alabama, are loading up backpacks, meeting with teachers and classmates and adjusting to classroom procedures since school kicked off. Elsewhere in the U.S., kids are flocking to beaches on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as scorching temperatures hit some areas including Death Valley and Puerto Rico.

Wright feels like it's too early in the year for school. She wishes she had more time to spend with the kids. She would happily wait until after Labor Day when schools in other parts of the country start their calendar years.

Keary Noy, another Alabama parent, sees it differently. For her, the earlier school starts, the better. Noy's son's charter school moved its start date to the beginning of August, but she would have preferred a July start.

The first day of school is, of course, not consistent across the country. Data shows start dates generally correlate to the norms where you live.

Students in Southern states are more likely to start school in early August, according to a 2023 analysis by the Pew Research Center of school calendars . Researchers based their findings on 1,573 public school district calendars from the 2023-24 school year.

Kids at school districts in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania typically have the latest back-to-school days, the Pew analysis shows.

The most common start dates for districts are during the second and third full weeks of August, Pew found.

Most schools near Regana Bracey in New Jersey will open again after Labor Day.

Bracey, who belongs to a parent group working on educational reform, recalls being amazed at the great divide in start dates since she was a child visiting family in the South in the late summers, and her cousins would be back in school already.

"My cousins got out in May and they were always on summer break earlier. And I was envious of that. But on the reverse side, they were going back to school earlier," she said.

Decades later, the variety in what months people consider "summer break" seems normal.

See which 17 states offer them: Back-to-school shopping 2024 sales tax holidays

Why do some schools return earlier than others?

A majority of states require schools to offer about 180 days of instruction with some exceptions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

However, there is less uniformity across the nation when it comes to calendar start dates. At least 15 states have laws specifying when public schools' calendars must start or end. At least another 27 states allow districts to determine when to return from summer vacation, according to an Education Commission of the States 2023 report that compares calendar year policies across the nation.

Requiring kids to return to classes for some portion of the summer came about in the late 1800s and early 1900s, in a shift from  one-room schoolhouses to age-graded classrooms , when schools began seeing lower attendance at urban schools during the summer months, according to the Pew Research Center .

In the past, the school calendar years were tailored toward agricultural patterns or were open year-round.

"In fact, into the early 20th century, rural schools typically operated summer and winter sessions, with children working on farms in spring and fall to help with planting and harvesting," the Pew article explains. "Urban schools, on the other hand, were open nearly year-round, though many children attended sporadically or for just part of the year."

Schools are trying out later start times in parts of the US

Another consideration in some areas is keeping kids cool in the summer. This is a challenge for schools as regions adjust to hotter temperatures at the start of the school year. Some buildings don't have adequate air conditioning to keep kids cool enough to learn.

In response to a parent survey, the School District of Philadelphia adjusted its calendar a year ago to start after Labor Day during the 2023-2024 school year, making it later than the 2022-23 school year.

But even with the delayed start, Philadelphia schools sent kids home early at the start of the last school year due to hot temperatures.

Other areas will see later start dates this year, including Milwaukee Public Schools which start on Sept. 3. Some schools in the district previously followed an early start calendar year beginning in mid-August, but the district was forced to cancel classes due to the heat in the early days of the school year.

Contributing: Rory Linnane, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Contact Kayla Jimenez at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.