High School Start Time Research Paper

On average, high schoolers only obtain a fraction of the sleep they need every night. The amount of sleep a student needs compared to what, in reality, they get is terrible. In fact, students need at least eight and a half hours of sleep, and they simply do not obtain that much. On average, they only obtain five to six hours of sleep. This lack of sleep is extremely dangerous and unhealthy. Studies have shown that when students go to school, even an hour later than they do now, it makes a very big difference. High schools need to have a later start time because of the many benefits it would provide.
Early high school start times have many detriments on teenagers’ mental and physical health. Students who go to school before 8:30, statistically have a harder time paying attention in class. This lack of focus in school is in direct correlation with a lack of sleep amongst the students. In fact, according to Michelle Trudeau, over twenty percent of students fall asleep in class every day. This sleep deprivation can cause many things such as depression, mood swings, obesity and even lower immunity. A significant factor in this lack of sleep is the fact that teenagers ‘circadian …show more content…
In Jessamine County, Kentucky, they started fifty minutes later, they found that their students were on time to school more and had a spike in attendance. The University of Minnesota has found, through their extensive research, that schools with a later start time have reported better standardized test grades, and academic performances in areas such as math, English, science, and social studies. It was also found that there was a direct correlation between tardiness, substance abuse, symptoms of depression, and the consumption of caffeinated drinks; all of which went down with the later start times. In the studied counties, teen accidents went down a whopping seventy percent with the delayed start