Imagine you can get an hour or two of extra sleep every day throughout the school week. This is something that schools deprive students of by starting at extremely early hours. Many students walk into school feeling overworked and exhausted. This leads to students not paying attention in class and grades dropping because of the lack of sleep. School starting too early leads to sleep deprivation, bad mental health, and students being tardy.
To begin, earlier start times make students not pay attention as well as they would with later start times. A study shows that there is better performance with later start times. “Another review found later start times were correlated with better attendance, less tardiness, less falling asleep in class, better grades, and fewer car crashes” (American Psychological Association). This proves that more sleep is extremely beneficial, it will improve everything. To sum up, students getting more sleep contributes to a better lifestyle.
In addition, due to earlier start times more students have horrible mental health issues. In a study, it showed that kids with later start times live happier. ““Adolescent health is significantly improved by having later start times,” Wahlstrom said, with reductions in substance use, suicidality, and depression. “This isn’t a silver bullet to improve test scores. It’s a public health policy.”” (American Psychological Association). This shows that earlier start times can mess up a students mental health due to the lack of sleep.
In conclusion, starting schools later will greatly benefit students and make school more enjoyable. If schools keep starting later, more students will dread school and have bad mental health history.
