High School Students with a Delayed School Start Time Sleep Longer, Report less Daytime Sleepiness
Zaw W. Htwe, MD, of Norwalk Hospital's Sleep Disorders Center in Norwalk, Conn., conducted a study on 259 high school students. Before starting the experiment, the students had to complete a questionnaire about their sleep. Throughout the questionnaire, they realized that high school teens just got 7 hours of sleep during weekdays since their bed-time was around 10:52 p.m., and their wake-up time around 6:12 a.m. After delaying school start time for forty minutes, there were drastic changes. Students got to sleep more. During school hours, there were fewer complaints from the students about feeling sleepy. Mary B. O'Malley, MD, PhD also stated that through this study it was evident that teens preferred to sleep more than to extend their activities on school nights. To be honest, I think that delaying school start time can benefit teens around the world. They would be able to sleep more and be more efficient during school hours. After all, the hardest part of a day for a teen is waking up, especially early.
Starting High School One Hour Later May Reduce Teen Traffic Accidents
Barbara Phillips, MD, director of the UK Healthcare Good Samaritan Sleep Center in Lexington, Ky., and others say that early school starts impair the students’ way of learning, attendance, and safety driving. That is why there was a study conducted in the entire county-wide school district in Kansas in the month of April on the years of 1998 and 1999. Students from 6th to 12th grade were involved. On year one (1998) students were asked to complete a questionnaire about their sleep habits. The school start time was not changed; it was kept the same, at 7:30am for high schools, and 8:00 am for middle schools. On year two (1999) students were also asked to complete questionnaires, but this time they had to complete one before and another one after the change in school start time. Schools started one hour later, 8:30 am for high schools and 9 am for middle schools. It was realized that the county crash rates were higher when the school start time was kept the same. On the other hand, when the school start time was delayed, the rate of automobile accidents amongst teens decreased. In my opinion, many accidents not only in cars occur because of the lack of sleep. This happens especially on teenagers who are still developing and need to sleep in order to function well. Delaying school start time would not only benefit teenagers on the road but drivers in general, especially in the mornings.
Delayed School Start Time Associated With Improvements in Adolescent Behaviors
There was a study accomplished on 201 students from grades 9 – 12 from different high schools in Rhode Island by Judith A. Owens, M.D., M.P.H., of the Hasbro Children's Hospital, Providence, and some of her colleagues. The school start time was delayed by 30 minutes. After this delay, students had to complete a survey about their sleep habits. Evidently, depressed moods, fatigue, daytime sleepiness, unhappiness, irritations and annoyances decreased. In contrast, motivation, class attendance, and satisfaction amongst the students increased. There were drastic changes on the students´ behaviors, and the Health Center clearly saw this. Certainly, I think that making teens sleep more will make their behaviors change in positive ways. There would be less grumpiness and more happiness. Schools around the world should consider delaying their school starting times, seriously.
WORKS CITED:
"Teens with good behavior." http://helpingpsychology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/iStock_000009049430XSmall.jpg . Nov. 3, 2010
"Teen car accidents." http://www.inewscatcher.com/timages/2962a20bb740020d2cbab013710dc9e3.jpg . Nov. 3, 2010.
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