Why Students Should Sleep In Longer

By: CristalRose

Fox News at 9 has recently talked about how some high school students should sleep in during school days. No, that doesn’t mean school is going to be starting at noon, but they had suggested the first bell should ring at 8:30. This should be enough time to get school started, because as teenagers we tend to go to bed a little after 11, am I right? I mean I do. They had mentioned that as we get older, we have a harder time going to bed early. When I was younger, in my opinion, I thought we should have school start at a later time. I will always wake up more tired and want to sleep in, no matter how early I go to bed. I sleep until 7 but I'm still late getting ready, because as a girl, I take forever in the morning (I think all girls can relate to this). According to the National Sleep Foundation, the study’s finding are a cause for concern because according to Dr. Jonathan Pletcher, an adolescent medicine specialist at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh,  “.... a lack of sleep can increase depression, negative physical health like headaches, poor school performance, school absenteeism and drowsy driving.” Now, you see why school should start a little later? A modest delay in school start time only of 30 minutes can drastically improve adolescent alertness, mood, and health. Not enough sleep in adolescents, defined as less than 9 hours a night, is a known problem and major public health concern. Pediatric sleep experts have been encouraging delayed school start times to address the concern, to prove the benefits of sleeping in. Now from all that research scientists have done, I think all school boards should at least take this in consideration. Maybe it will help in the long run, if they tried it next year.