Later School Hours for Sleep-Deprived Teens

From the Marshall Memo #437

“Given the science, the idea of starting high schools later is a no-brainer,” says medical writer Terra Ziporyn Snider in this compelling Education Week article. “Waking before sunrise means teens must be asleep by about 8:30 p.m. to get the approximately nine hours of sleep per night their growing brains and bodies require. Even disregarding homework, extracurriculars, and electronics, physiologic changes mean most adolescents can’t fall asleep before 11 p.m. Shifted circadian rhythms make 7 a.m. in teens (and younger teachers) equivalent to 4 a.m. in their parents.” 

The research and common sense are compelling, says Snider, citing a 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that found 70 percent of U.S. teens are sleep-deprived and 40 percent are getting six or fewer hours of sleep on school nights. “Today,” she says, “you’d be hard-pressed to find a health professional, sleep scientist, or educator who would defend starting high schools in the 7 a.m. hour, now the norm for many U.S. high schools, as good for physical or mental health, safety, or learning… Aligning start times with student body clocks decreases dropout rates, truancy, moodiness, car crashes, depression, and related medication needs, and it improves school performance and increases the amount of sleep students get per night.” One study found that for disadvantaged students, early start times had the same effect as having a highly ineffective teacher. There’s the additional safety issue that students in early-starting schools are done by 2:00 p.m. and have hours of unsupervised afternoon time to get into trouble. 

Even with all this evidence, many communities resist changing their early-start times. Those who have gone to later hours – including Wilton (CT), Edina and Minneapolis (MN), and Palo Alto (CA) – have found that people quickly learn to deal with it. “Concerns about the impact on sports, jobs, day care, and so forth turn out to be groundless,” says Snider. “Everything in the community adjusts to the new school times, just as when schools or families change start times for other reasons.” 

But Snider acknowledges that it’s hard for local school boards to stand up to community resistance that always mobilizes when the possibility of a later start time is raised. A more powerful message from outside is required to support local action. “We must start regarding 7 a.m. start times as just as unacceptable as refusing to heat schools when the temperature drops or as exposing children to secondhand smoke,” she says. “This may take federal, state, and/or local laws or regulations to ensure safe, healthy school hours for all students, in much the same way that federal regulations already restrict times school lunch can be served.” 

“Later School Start Times Are a Public-Health Issue” by Terra Ziporyn Snider in Education Week, May 16, 2012 (Vol. 31, #31, p. 25), http://bit.ly/JhPusw