Matthew Kogler

English 1101-01

Prof. Lahmon

December 6, 2019

Pushing Back School Starting Times

One topic of discussion for several years throughout the United States is whether

school starting times should be pushed back. There have been various schools

throughout the country that have pushed back their starting times in an attempt to make

a positive impact on the academic performance of students, as well as their mental

health. By pushing back starting times, a level playing field will be created for all

students across the country and ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to

have the same amount of sleep each night. With lots of data that concludes pushing

back starting times does make a positive impact on the student population in terms of

mental and physical health, as well as test scores, this practice should be standardized

across the country.

To understand why pushing back school starting times is so important and could

have such a monumental effect on the mental and physical health of teens as well as

their performance in the classroom, it is crucial to understand that science behind all of

this. According to The National Sleep Foundation, when someone hits puberty, their

sleep patterns begin to change. More specifically, teens will start to fall asleep later and

experience sleepiness during the day. The cause of all this change has to do with

melatonin. Melatonin is released later and later as teens grow older and this makes it
harder to fall asleep at a time where it is possible to get the recommended 9 and a

quarter-hour of sleep (“Later School Start Times: Benefits & Cons.”). Additionally, teens

these days are involved in many activities outside of school such as sports, clubs, and

even jobs. This makes it a bit unrealistic to get the recommended hours of sleep and

still stay on top of everything in your life.

However, pushing back school starting times could have a significant impact on

students in many aspects of their lives. As Casey Anderson states,” Starting school later

allows adolescents to get more sleep, thus improving student’s physical and mental

health, attendance, and academic performance” (Anderson). According to the study that

Anderson is referring to in this article, when the starting time was pushed back from

7:50 to 8:45, students gained on average 34 extra minutes of sleep and their final

grades increased by 4.5 percent (Anderson). While the starting time was pushed back

by almost an hour, students on average gained about an extra half an hour of sleep, this

does not seem like much. However, the impact of that extra sleep is considerable as

final grades increased by 4.5 percent. This proves that just a little extra sleep for teens

can go a long way when it comes to their academic performance. Pushing back starting

times also,” helped students combat the symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation, such as

fatigue, depression, and memory and cognition impairment” (Anderson). Considering

that mental health is becoming an increasing concern for many across the country,

especially in adolescents. It is entirely possible that teens do not need expensive

therapy sessions or other treatment, but perhaps all that is needed is just a little more

sleep each night.

 Yet, there is the argument that pushing starting times back will have no impact at

all on the mental or physical health of teens or their performance in the classroom. This

argument is supported and refuted by a very thorough report written by Jeffery Groen

and Sabrina Pabilonia. This study states that while pushed back starting times does

increase the total time that students sleep each day, it has no effect on their health. It

also states that there was no difference in the reading or math scores of males who had

later school starting times. However, in this study, it is concluded that delayed school

starting times increased reading scores in females, but there was no difference in math

scores among females. Ultimately, the study does conclude that later school starting

time does lead to greater academic success (Groen, Jeffery A, and Sabrina W

Pabilonia). On the other hand, this very in-depth study somewhat dulls down the effects

of later school starting times and makes it seem that maybe it is not all that it is cracked

up to be.

Some studies even present the idea that there are alternatives to pushing back

school starting times that might yield the same result. One such idea was produced by

the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. In the article from Science Daily, it is

stated that teens are extremely sensitive to light and that this has a very large impact on

the sleeping patterns of adolescents. By using a mathematical model and other

research, it was concluded that simply dimming that lights, or turning them off

completely, especially during the day, would help teens fall asleep earlier at night and

thus allow them to get more sleep (University of Surrey). This goes against the notion

that teens fall asleep later as a result of melatonin being released later in the night. The

researchers behind this study are simply saying that turning off the light or limiting
artificial light during the day will allow teens body clocks to shift, allowing them to get

more sleep than they would get by pushing back school starting times (University of

Surrey).

Many strong pieces of evidence suggest that school starting time will have little to

no impact on health or academic performance and that there are better alternatives than

pushing school starting times back. However, there is an equal number of sources that

support the idea that pushing school starting times back is the easiest way to improve

academic performance and health among teens in school. The alternative to delayed

school starting times discussed in this essay simply does not seem practical considering

students spend a large portion of their day in a school environment where lights are on

constantly. The simple solution is to have all schools, nationwide, delay their starting

times. The benefits from this far outweigh any cost associated with delayed school

starting times as the health of the future minds of this country takes precedent.
 Works Cited

Anderson, Casey. “Here's What Happens When School Starts Later.” NEA Today, 1

Mar. 2019, neatoday.org/2019/02/27/what-happens-when-schools-start-later/.

Groen, Jeffery A, and Sabrina W Pabilonia. “Snooze or Lose: High School Start Times

and Academic Achievement.” ScienceDirect, 29 May 2019, www-sciencedirect-

com.sinclair.ohionet.org/science/article/pii/S0272775718306800.

“Later School Start Times: Benefits & Cons.” National Sleep Foundation,

www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/backgrounder-later-school-start-times.

University of Surrey. “Mathematicians Predict Delaying School Start Times Won't Help

Sleep Deprived Teenagers.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 28 Mar. 2017,

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170328083210.htm.