The CDC has confirmed what I blogged about five years ago: that middle school and high school students start their school days too early.
According to a CDC article released last week, adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to:
- Be overweight
- Not engage in daily physical activity
- Suffer from depressive symptoms
- Engage in unhealthy risk behaviors such as drinking, smoking tobacco and using illicit drugs
- Perform poorly in school
Despite this, less than a third of U.S. high school students sleep at least 8 hours per night during the school week.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is urging middle and high schools to modify their start times so kids will get enough sleep and improve their health, safety, academic performance and quality of life. That means that middle schools and high schools should start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. Unfortunately, the average start time for these campuses is 8:03 a.m., according to the CDC.
“A school system start time policy of 8:30 a.m. or later provides teenage students the opportunity to achieve the 8.5-9.5 hours of sleep recommended by AAP and the 8-10 hours recommended by the National Sleep Foundation,” says the CDC.
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Districts that consider changing the starting times to later in the morning, however, could face push-back due to the potential for increased transportation costs, increased traffic congestion and difficulty in scheduling after school activities, including athletic programs.
The CDC says, “Advocates for delayed start times might benefit from 1) becoming familiar with research about the negative impact of insufficient sleep and early start times on adolescents’ health, well-being, and academic performance; 2) identification of persons who might be impacted by the decision to delay start times, including parties involved in transportation and school athletic programs, as well as students, teachers, and school staff; and 3) preparing responses to common arguments against delaying start times. Many school systems have successfully overcome barriers to delay start times.”
Previous research has shown that adolescents need more shut-eye and have very different sleeping patterns than adults or children. Additionally, teens go to sleep later not because they are rebellious but because their secretion of melatonin in the brain is delayed, which causes them to fall asleep later.
Image: newpaltz.educ
