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Wolfe
Kristy Wolfe

Sharyn Hunter

ENG 1201

February 28, 2021

Should School Times Start Later?

It was at the start of the 20th century that the need for starting school emerged. Scholars

conducted a study concerning sleep at the University of Minnesota. Based on the research

findings, the Minnesota District implemented some changes to the start times for seven of their

high schools in 1997 and 1998. There was an extension of the start time from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40

a.m. Some of the main findings from the research were schools experienced high rates of

absence; many students were sleeping in class, and students showed high levels of

aggressiveness within schools and at home.

Moreover, respondents who were supposedly parents to the students stated that their

children were in better moods compared to the era when the start of school was earlier in the day.

From the questionnaires filled by students inquiring about their sleep rhythms, their grades in

school and often they sleep during the day when attending classes. Teachers were also

respondents to the research where results obtained from their questionnaires were students

recorded improvements in their attitudes, minimized drowsiness in class, and improved academic

performances among most learners. This essay engages in an in-depth analysis of variable

studies relating to the late school start and its practical nature to students.

The biggest issue with later school times is if the delay will help with better grades.

However, from an ethical point of view, public health needs to be the ultimate reason why the

bill on schools starting later in the day than the current situation is passed. Health is a paramount
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requirement in an individual's life, which means that in as much as better grades might be

essential in a learner’s life, its perceived reward is endangered by the deprivation of health in

one’s life. However, authors who believe strongly that students are disoriented in the early hours

of the day could result from the availability of intriguing processes and experiences in schools.

Should modern schools have items, activities, or environments favorable for adolescents to have

the freedom they expect, their perception of school will be closely related to a prison's

surroundings where their freedom has been taken away from them. Such an experience of lack of

power, controlled by a third-party, minimizes the learners' motivation to arrive at school in the

early hours of the day. This is not conducive to a learning environment, would one stay at a job

where one was always tired?

After the start of school late initiative was actualized in a few areas globally; researchers

got on the need to discover whether the newly proposed idea of pushing back the time for

learners to begin their studies would be successful as anticipated. To the surprise of many, the

outcome after several studies that were pushed to a later time of the day proves successful as the

thought made it seem to be an incredible achievement. Minimized interactions among learners in

school and prolonged time needed to report in school seemed to calm their aggressiveness. When

one is tired one is more likely to act out verbally or physically, this is especially true of a brain

that is still growing. Simultaneously, they were provided more time to sleep appeared to be the

most proposed features when these studies' success is evaluated. Yes, grades improve, less

tardiness and absences, less fighting, and improved standardized testing. Teenagers are drunk! A

study (Hernandez) that newly licensed teens who were sleep-deprived tested the equivalent of a

0.07 blood alcohol content. These newly licensed drivers that are still learning how to control

their vehicle and no fault of their own they have the effects of almost being drunk. The reaction
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time is slower with sleep-deprived drivers and combining this with still learning to drive this is a

recipe for disaster. This study also reported that when teenagers got eight-plus hours of sleep,

they said better behaviors and less irritability. People believe that being a teenager means that

they will be irritable. These studies suggest that many commonly held concepts about teenage

behavior are because they are sleep-deprived zombies!

When Hafner conducted the study on investigating the success attained in late school

start, the following resulted: the realization that 80% of both middle and high schools start before

8:30. Assumptions existing in this research enabled the prediction that if schools were to start

one hour later, it would only cost $1,950 per student's entire education, and it would lead to $17,

500 income gain in that person’s lifetime. The arguments for the people opposed to late start

times have used money as the main reason for not changing the start times. The reality is that for

every dollar spent, nine was made back. The problem is that people are slow to change. Studies

that have been done have proven that many parents, teachers, and students are ok with the start

of school is delayed. The argument that later starts times will affect afterschool activities and

family time are not true. Coaches, athletic boosters, and student-athletes argue that later school

days will affect practices and, by extension, losing games. Why are athletics more important to

the schools than the health and well-being of students? This is a backwards way of thinking and

can have life-long effects on the student’s life. Is a winning team more important than the

student’s health and happiness?

A Biological Overview on Starting School Late

According to Neighmond, the tendency of teenagers needing to begin school a little bit

later in the day than the standard norm can be argued from a biological standpoint. The habit of

teens feeling like they are disoriented in the early hours of the day does not necessarily point out
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that they are less ambitious or are somewhat lazy. As children begin to grow into the adolescent

stage in life, they encounter changes in their sleep cycles. You will find most adolescents likely

to stay for long hours awake during the night, which generally affects their motivation to wake

up early in the morning. It is a natural experience to feel like waking up later than usual due to

most adolescent bodies releasing melatonin. This is a hormone that regulates how the human

body sleeps. More researchers discovered that it is difficult for teens to get out of the induced

sleep from the melatonin released in their bodies. It is approximately until around 8:00 a.m. that

most of the adolescents will come out of bed. The cards are stacked against the teenagers

because they are hormonally not capable of being awake and alert enough during the first two

periods to do well in those classes. The first two periods are when teachers report the most

sleeping in class.

It appears that this sleeping pattern that is eminent from adolescents forces them to

advocate for schools to start later in the day than the usual morning hours. However, this

discovery leaves out the concern of understanding the human routine being adjusted to fit the

biological structure of how adolescents sleep. For instance, it would be necessary that starting

from elementary school; lessons are scheduled to begin at a later time, straight to the university

level. This way, a learning culture can be generated where adolescents will have the privilege of

starting school late. At the same time, children and adults adopt the usual routine of beginning

studies earlier in the day. According to scientific studies, it was further revealed that the

understanding of the human brain is likely to be more attentive earlier in the day than later in the

day (Altwicker-Hámori and Köllő 488). For this reason, most schools have scheduled their

lessons to begin quite early in the morning to ascertain students grasp a better part of the syllabus

taught to them.
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When consulting the recommended amount of time recommended for sleep, one could

realize that children ranging from 6 to 12 years of age are advised to have at least 9 to 12 hours

of sleep, while teenagers running from the age of 13 to 18 are supposed to sleep for at least 8 to

10 hours in a day (Gonzalez and Shneyderman 1). Considering this is the most vulnerable group

when it comes to the adjustment of sleep partners in addition to the time of the day when a

school needs to commence, further research needs to be conducted considering that students in

college and university are above the teenage group as they can be considered to be young adults.

As it appears from the research done, their duration required to sleep reduces significantly as one

ages. This means students in universities and colleges are likely to adapt to having school start

earlier in the day than those attending high school or elementary school. The reason behind the

proposal mentioned above could be depicted from the intentions of administering healthy

sleeping habits across all scholars. Allowing elementary and high school learners to begin school

attendance later in the day would be a more beneficial move. However, a similar pattern cannot

be embraced by students in colleges or universities. This results from their short period of

healthy sleeping. It would be to their advantage that they begin studying earlier in the day

compared to young learners.

Most of the research that advocates for schools to start later than 8:30 a.m. has majored

their arguments on the assertions from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (Walker).

However, this suggestion was only applicable to middle and high school learners. The main

intention of proposing such an initiative was to assist adolescents in having an aligned sleep

rhythm that is biologically supported. It has been identified that most of the adolescents

attending school earlier than 8:30 a.m. in the U.S. are likely to contract public health issues such

as chronic sleep loss. Although this problem is common among children and adolescents,
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physicians have ascertained that it can be easily fixed by adjusting the time required to attend

classes (Walker). However, other scholars have claimed that this initiative's enactment will result

in letting children stay more extended hours in school by extending the time required to leave the

premise of their variable learning institutions. Another approach that could be initiated to

accommodate this new mode of operations in schools would be prolonging the days in a

semester to avoid being behind current standardized curricula.

Securing Student Safety through Starting School Late

Altwicker-Hámori and Köllő brought a prominent argument through the assertion that

starting school later could be beneficial as it would guarantee teenage safety (459). This thought

was based on the assumption that most teens drive themselves to school. Further reports on road

safety and accidents from AAA depicted that more than 100,000 car crashes are caused by

students who go to school while drowsy, among other contributing factors such as texting and

driving or under the influence of illicit drugs (Altwicker-Hámori and Köllő 462). To some

extent, this argument could yield positive results in minimizing road accidents caused by

students who drive to school while drowsy. It would be necessary for the learners to be allowed

ample time to rest until their melatonin-induced sleep fades off before they can keenly keep track

of their driving while heading to school.

Other scholars would disagree with suggesting that allowing students to start school late

would hinder road accidents from happening. Every year in the United States 100 children are

killed in accidents while walking to or from school. The Transportation Research board report

that 25,000 children are injured every year in school zone accidents. If the school were to start

later some of these injuries and deaths could be prevented. Starting school later is a small price to

pay to help keep our teenagers safe by allowing them to get enough sleep. Research has shown
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that teenagers are reckless drivers caused by their enthusiasm for driving with disregard to road

signs and traffic rules. This means starting school late would not remedy the contemporary

challenge of students causing road accidents. However, this research lacks the acclamation that

starting school late would reduce the number of accidents caused by teenagers driving to school

early in the morning when they are drowsy. It would then be advisable that schools start late for

teenagers who push themselves to school to pay more attention when on the road. Considering

that teenagers who can drive are only allowed to sleep for 8 to 10 hours, it would be

recommendable for the school to start at around 8:00 a.m. for them to catch sufficient sleep.

Academic Performance

Zoe Lofgren is a Congressional Representative who is a democrat residing in California.

He introduced the house bill 1861- ZZZ was to A’s Act on March 25 th, 2019. The bill intends to

instruct the Secretary of Education to engage in an investigation that will help determine the

connection between school start times and the well-being, health, and performances of

adolescents (Lofgren). There has been no bill of such nature in the history of public health and

education in the U.S. While referring to Section 2 of the H.R.1861 - ZZZ's to A's Act. It is clear

that findings that supported the passing of the bill were, a start of school at a later time would

enable students to perform better (Lofgren). Besides, schools' population would increase

extensively if learners are allowed to attend classes at a fairly later time than usual. Most

elementary school learners and those attending middle school have reported a higher percentage

of absenteeism resulting from the phobia of waking up early and losing out on sleep to

participate in early morning classes. Ideally, the academic performance and students could be

enhanced when they start school late since they are more attentive in class.
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With the standard schedule where students need to attend school early, learners could

barely get enough sleep, resulting in most of the morning lessons being occupied with drowsy

learners whose attention to knowledge impacted them is low. That means an adjustment to the

current time where students need to be in school early is adjusted to a good later time would

essentially enhance the performances in test scores, which will significantly impact a positive

performance in their grade point averages (Lofgren). Illingworth et al., in support of the bill,

revealed that most learners have low moods when attending morning classes. This resulted from

the high levels of dissatisfaction among middle and high schools that emanated from the abrupt

interruption of their unaccomplished sleep. For this reason, it has led to many teachers

advocating for the adoption and passing of the H.R.1861 - ZZZ's to A's Act. Their input in the

educational sector in the nation will be of measurable worth and reduce the struggles of keeping

most of the adolescent learners awake in morning lessons.

Altwicker-Hámori and Köllő argue that the beginning of school early is likely to expose

students to obesity (471). Any person who does not receive enough sleep, the body becomes

incapable of balancing the hormones used to control a person’s appetite. Such an imbalance can

make a person eat a lot of food either in school or at home. If adolescents are allowed to react

naturally to the hormonal imbalance in their bodies, they are at a higher risk of becoming obese.

Since their weight will have significantly increased, then being tired would be a typical

encounter that acts as a barrier to motivating learners to engage in physical activities that would

enable them to keep fit. The motivation behind being physically fit is shuttered by the increased

time spent sleeping in class, which causes laziness in learners who do not want to engage in

physical exercises that would help them gain control of their weight.
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In as much as the issue of late school start, times may seem to be a positive push towards

progression in children and adolescent health and intellectual growth, and it would be

inconsiderate to think that despite the benefits, the emergence of lifelong adversities is

negligible. However, a compromise on the disadvantages of schools starting late is supported by

the positives feedback received on its benefits to only the teenagers but the community. From the

discussions in the essay, it is evident that adolescents who do not get enough sleep are likely to

experience depression, feel some constant anxiousness, and score low grades in class, among

other health-damaging consequences like an increased intake of illicit drugs and alcohol.

Unfortunately, many students have lost their lives due to not having enough sleep in their lives.

For instance, teenage drivers who use vehicles to arrive at school end up causing unexpected

accidents resulting from their drowsiness, denying them a good vision to be careful while on the

road.

One crucial aspect that lacked in most of the authors' discussions was the time these teens

and children went to elementary and middle school wake up. Although the recommended time

proposed to start school is 9:00 a.m., it is still unreasonable to say that most students will need to

be awake by 6:00 a.m. If adolescents find themselves spending most of their time awake in very

late hours of the night, it is considered that they would compensate most of the time sleeping

during the early hours of the day. For instance, if most adolescents find themselves sleep at

midnight, then 8 hours of sleep recommended to this group would need them to be awake at

around 8:00 a.m., and an allowance of two hours is provided for their preparation to attend

school would push the recommended time to start school to be 10:00 a.m. Other researchers may

render this observation to be students are likely to change their perception of education by

adjusting a few norms surrounding their education that are seemingly meant to them. It becomes
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clear that deprived sleep may not necessarily be the primary cause of increased aggression and

poor educational performance. However, the early start of school leads to children sleeping more

frequently in school is undisputed. If the educational sector were to gain interest in further

improving learners' academic performance, they would be needed to engage in advanced

research in monitoring the various aspects that make them uncomfortable in school.
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Works Cited

Altwicker-Hámori, Szilvia, and János Köllő. "Whose children gain from starting school later?–

evidence from Hungary." Educational Research and Evaluation, vol. 18, Iss. 5 (2012): pp

459-488.

Gonzalez, Vanessa H. and Shneyderman, Aleksandr. “Need For Sleep: Causes And

Consequences Of Insufficient Sleep In Adolescents. Can Delaying School Start Times

Help?” Mami-Dade County Public Schools. Vol 1902. Microsoft Word - AMC - M1020 -

ATTACHMENT - Info Capsule - Need for Sleep (002). Accessed on 15th February 2021.

Illingworth, Gaby et al. “Challenges in implementing and assessing outcomes of school start

time change in the UK: experience the Oxford Teensleep study.” Sleep medicine vol. 60

(2019): 89-95. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2018.10.021. Accessed on 14th February 2021.

Lofgren, Zoe. H.R. Bill 1861.” ZZZ’S to A’s Act.” March 25, 2019. H.R.1861 - 116th Congress

(2019-2020): ZZZ's to A's Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress. Accessed Feb. 10,

2021.

Neighmond, Patti. “Sleepless No More in Seattle-Later School Start Times Pays off for Teens.

December 12, 2018. NPR.ORG. Later School Start Times Do Work To Help Teens Get

More Sleep: Shots - Health News: NPR. Accessed February 2, 2021. Online.

Walker, Tim. “Despite Proven Benefits, Starting Schools Later Remains a “Tough Sell.”

NEAToday. September 20, 2015, Despite Proven Benefits, Starting School Later Remains

a 'Tough Sell' | NEA Accessed January 25, 2021. Online