While parents remain concerned and administrations fail to act, students are still forced to sleep less and come to school very early whilst being exhausted. Most high school pupils do not get enough shut-eye.
Advertisement
Health experts at the government agency noted that teens generally need 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep. In 2007, it was polled that 2 out of 3 high school students didn’t get enough sleep, and that still holds true eight years later.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data on Thursday about when the school day typically starts for the nation’s public middle and high school students. Nationally, 83 percent of middle school and high school classes begin much earlier.
It is confirmed: teens need more sleep and need to start school later.
The study showed that less than one in five schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later.
Well, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, starting before then means students don’t get enough sleep and that can work against their health, safety and “academic success”. To take sleep hours away from teenagers could begin to severely disrupt their education and academic performance.
Last year they recommended middle and high schools aim for a starting time later than the 8:30 mark, saying teens aren’t getting enough sleep and it can contribute to them being overweight, depressed and underperforming in school. In a compromise, Montgomery County, Md., the state’s largest school district, pushed high school start times 20 minutes later – to 7:45 a.m. – after heated debate on the subject.
No schools in Hawaii, Mississippi and Wyoming started at 8:30 a.m. or later, while more than three-quarters of schools in Alaska and North Dakota started at 8:30 a.m. or later.
The CDC study looked at the school start times around the country versus their recommendations, along with the potential impact from the lack of rest. A later state time would also disrupt after-school activities, especially athletics, according the report.
To combat this, the study recommends pediatricians take an active approach supporting and educating families on healthy sleeping habits.
Wheaton added that she suspects busing schedules are the leading factor in early school start times.
The analysis uses 2011-2012 information from the Department of Education to glean the start times of about 39,700 schools.
Advertisement
Judith Owens, the director of sleep medicine at Boston’s Children Hospital suggests that chronically sleep deprivation characterizes the majority of today’s teens. “Among adolescents, insufficient sleep has been associated with adverse risk behaviors, poor health outcomes and poor academic performance”.
