Let's Sleep In!

Ever wish that the school day started a little later? How annoying is it to drag yourself out of bed to get to school by 7:50? Imagine if school started at 7:00 or 7:20. Oh, the horror! So, what if I told you that there is an ongoing push to get schools to have later start times. Does this sound like a good or bad idea to you? Remove yourself from your day-school mindset, and imagine you would normally get out at 2 or 3 normally. The later school starts, the later school will have to end. How will this cut in with extracurricular activities? I know.. you're probably laughing because we already end really late and somehow manage. And you're also probably thinking that if we started any later that would mean we would never get home. But I told you--- try to be unbiased! Now, read Jan Hoffman's article entitled "To Keep Teenagers Alert, Schools Let Them Sleep In" by clicking here. It's pretty interesting, dontcha think? 

So, now that you've read the article, what do you all think? Do you think it makes sense for schools to be going toward these later start times, or do you think that it's too much of a hassle? By the way- note how one of the 'later start time' options was 8 a.m. That's not so late compared to our school, but it's an extra hour to 40 minutes for other students.

There are some interesting points that the article brought up that I thought I'd discuss for those of you who didn't necessarily read the article. Apparently teenagers are developmentally driven to be late to bed and late to rise. As in, there is a biological aspect to why we (sorry if you don't fall under this 'we'.. I know I do) seem to be okay going to sleep late and then feel terrible in the morning. Is this another case of the "blame it on biology" (oy.. now that song is going to be stuck in my head again..)? Recent results show that the later a school's start time, the better off the students were on many measures, including mental health, car crash rates, attendance, and, in some cases, grades and standardizes tests. What do you think about this correlation? I think those results make a lot of logical sense. Why do you think, though, that there's not a greater push to get teens to go to bed earlier? Wouldn't this solve the same problems?

I am all for this later start time in theory, but I don't know what it's long lasting impacts will be. If teens get home later, and have a later start time, don't you think they will just develop a new schedule? Let's say they used to go to bed at 12 every night and get up at 6:40- what's to stop them from going to bed at 1 and getting up at 7:40? I guess what I'm trying to say-do you think these positive results will be lasting in the long-term, or do you think that kids will eventually adjust to these new times, and find other ways to be lacking sleep? 

I think the main objective for all concerned parties is for kids to be healthy and get enough sleep. Researchers have found that sleeping can help moderate teenagers' tendency toward impulsive or risky decision making. We also know that sleep is important in information processing. Is later a later start time the solution to all this? I think we have to think about what exactly is causing teenagers to go to sleep so late in the first place. During puberty, teenagers have a later release of melatonin, which makes most teenagers not feel drowsy until 11pm. This is a biological factor that will cause teenagers to go to sleep late. But what about social factors? What about the fact that electronic devices trick the brain into sensing wakeful daylight, slowing the release of melatonin and the onset of sleep? What about facebook, twitter, and other social networking sites? Teens waste so much time on those sites. If they actually did what they were supposed to do, maybe they wouldn't be tired. 

I'm interested to see where this will take us. Will more schools lean towards later start times? Will the students in the schools with later starts score significantly higher and do better? Will they be happier? What about the athletes and other kids participating in extracurricular activities? So many questions.  It's not as simple as it might sound. Final thoughts?