Over 80,000 people in America fall asleep while driving every day, and According to several studies over 50% of those people are teenage drivers. One can easily see while using social media that teens are exhausted from school hours and school work across the nation. School hours are so demanding mixed with sports and academic related activities, this puts a lot of stress on high schoolers all over the country. The overbearing need to receive good grades can lead most teenagers to become gradually more stressed, and eventually even cheat.
The main issue I am trying to address here is that school hours are all too demanding for teenagers in this day and age therefore school hours should be pushed back a minimum of one hour if not more. Sleep deprivation is the condition of not having enough sleep. A chronic sleep deprived state can cause fatigue, daytime sleepiness, and negatively affects the brain and cognitive function. The American Association of Pediatrics advises that high schools start no earlier than 8:30 in the morning considering that teenagers get their best sleep between 11pm and 8am.
If the average teenager falls asleep at eleven o’clock and night only to wake up again before school starts at 7:15, the window that they have for sleep is only a mere 5-7 hours. That’s four hours below the amount of sleep recommended. The school hours only being an advisory calls for high schools all throughout Missouri to start school earlier in order to reach the 174 days a year which are required by state law. For teenagers, starting this early in the morning could cause stress and especially sleep deprivation because they are not getting the recommended 9-12 hours a night.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, not getting enough sleep to function properly in the morning also could potentially cause life threatening injuries such as car crashes from not being able to concentrate on their surroundings. In an attempt to prevent said problem, a high school by the name of Jackson Hole in Wyoming had changed its starting time to 8:55 in the morning which caused the number of car related accidents involving teenage drivers to drop by 70%.
Even though fatal accidents are a huge chunk of the problems caused by not getting enough sleep, there is also an emotional impact too. Chronic sleep loss can be a big contributor to higher rates of anxiety, depression, obesity, and suicidal ideation. Everyday, you will hears students complaining about school and how much it stresses them out, but how many students actually feel that way and have no idea how to manage it?
According to a study done by USA Today, students were asked to rate their stress caused by not getting enough sleep and school hours. 51% of students had reported moderate stress (4-7) in the past month, while 13% reported extreme stress. Also in the past month, 40% of teens said that stress and school hours had made them irritable or even angry. Besides the effects on students, schools have also pushed back starting times in order to save money for other things in the school system.
In California, several school have decided to push back start times for the sake of saving money. By doing this, teacher contracts did not need to change and the students benefit majorly from this adjustment. With being physically and emotionally unstable without the sleep they need, teenagers could be a danger not only to others, but also to themselves. Kids have become so stressed because of school that they only see faking sick, skipping, or even hurting themselves to avoid attending their classes everyday.
When will public school systems realize that sometimes students cannot take the pressure of receiving near perfect grades to get into a good college that eventually rests on how their entire life will pan out? Even while students are doing well in school, chronic sleep development can cause a decrease in performance. Having your sleep reduced by as little as an hour and a half can impact you greatly. In addition to my previous statement, chronic sleep loss can also severely impact your memory and cognitive development – your ability to process information.
This means that after learning new things all day in school, a student might forget key things the following day. Solve: There are many ways to solve this problem, but one of the ways that l’ve come up with to get later school start times is to confront the Wentzville school board about the academic and emotional impact that the earlier times have caused for students throughout the state of Missouri. There can also be a petition signed by parents and students to push back school start times by an hour at the least.