During the early 1970's, most schools in America started around 9:00 in the morning. Since then, many middle and high schools began to start at 8:00 A.M. or earlier, and that hasn't changed. Why did schools move start times earlier? The answer is socioeconomic; in 1973, an oil embargo affected the United States and created an energy crisis. Mimi Kirk - an author from Bloomberg.com - claims that schools had to cut costs, and many of these schools chose to consolidate transportation between multiple schools to one fleet of buses. Kirk says this was achieved by staggering the times that each school started and ended so that buses could carry multiple age groups of students, and the oldest students got the earliest start times. According to Kirk, research was already beginning to show up documenting the need for more sleep during adolescent years, but schools had already made the change and were reluctant to revert it (Kirk). Despite how little it seems, this one-hour shift in start times has created a crisis of sleep deprivation for millions of students in the United States. As a result of this sleep deficit, student grades have plummeted, automobile accident rates have increased, mental health in students has dropped, and more. Middle and high schools should start at 8:30 A.M. or later in order to improve students' well-being and reduce sleep deprivation.
Many benefits have been associated with schools instituting later start times. According to Kyla Wahlstrom, a lecturer at the University of Minnesota, high schools that moved their start times to 8:00 A.M. or later observed higher grades in core classes during first periods (4). Wahlstrom posits that “the later the start time, the greater the academic benefits” (4). During her study, Wahlstrom also observed that tardiness and absences also decreased in relation to school start times, as well as risky behaviors like drug use and underage drinking. Depression and sexual activity in students also decreased by about 10% (Wahlstrom 4). The goal of schools should be to foster success, and in order to accomplish this, start times need to align with the needs of students.
So why exactly do school start times create such a drastic change? Physiologically, adolescents sleep and wake later than adults. This is because during puberty, one's circadian rhythm shifts forward, which according to Wahlstrom, causes teenagers not to feel drowsiness until around 10:45 P.M. These students naturally wake up around 8 in the morning, meaning that teenagers ideally should be getting 9.25 hours of sleep every night (Wahlstrom 2). Despite this, Julie Marhefka - a Master of Science in Nursing - claims that about 1 in 4 of these students report daytime sleepiness as a result of sleep deprivation (Marhefka 2). Schools need to push start times forward in order to create an environment that encourages achieving an adequate amount of rest, and to mitigate the drawbacks that come with early rise times.
This isn't an issue that's specific to Western society either. According to June Lo, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, “In Singapore, school typically starts around 07:30” (2), which is an hour behind the recommended 8:30 A.M. by the American Academy of Pediatrics among other esteemed organizations (2). As a result, the average student gets about 6 and a half hours of sleep per night (Lo 2), astonishingly below the recommendation of 8 to 9 hours of sleep for these students. These start times are a direct factor of the chronic sleepiness that so many students face.
In Lo's study, school start times were delayed by 45 minutes, making the school begin at 8:15 A.M. Around 20% of an all-girls school participated, although every student was eligible. Students reported their sleep and wake times and filled out questionnaires, as well as wearing a device on their wrists that would objectively measure sleep times (Lo 2). When the study concluded, about 90% of students, roughly 75% of parents, and about 67% of teachers surveyed said that the change had a positive impact on students (Lo 4). Every majority in these groups were for a later start time, yet the standard for so many of these schools is 8:00 A.M. or earlier. With all of the benefits correlated with a later start time and a majority agreeing with a later start time policy, it's inexcusable that no change has been implemented yet.
According to Wahlstrom, someone with less than four hours of sleep exhibits the same driving characteristics as someone who's intoxicated with a .08% blood alcohol content. One's reaction time and ability to make quick decisions is greatly reduced when someone is sleep-deprived, and so students who don't get enough sleep can be at much greater a risk to themselves as well as the people around them on the road (Wahlstrom 6). Many students have and will continue to die preventable deaths due to circumstances caused by early school start times.
Students can't regain lost sleep. It may seem like getting a surplus of rest following days of poor sleep is all it takes to fix a sleep schedule, but this isn't the case at all. Marhefka argues that adequate rest can only be attained through consistent sleep hygiene, by maintaining the same sleep schedule on both weekdays and weekends. Marhefka claims that societal norms have stigmatized the natural delay in circadian rhythm that all teenagers face, framing it as a disorder which makes delaying start times seem more frivolous than it really is (Marhefka 3). The sleeping habits these students learn in middle and high school also follow them later into life. Marhefka alleges that when a healthy sleep pattern is maintained in adolescence, one is more likely to keep that pattern during college-age (Marhefka 2).
What's stopping every school from making this change? The crux of the problem is infrastructure. Logistical issues like bus times and extracurriculars prevent later start times from being considered in the first place. However, these issues are not insurmountable, and many districts have successfully implemented the change at great benefit to their students. Wahlstrom even claims that there was no effect on extracurricular or sports participation when schools started later (Wahlstrom 6).
So how would change be achieved? I would argue that the first goal for any school district looking to institute this change would be to modify their transportation methods in order to better apply to the later start times. In Wahlstrom's study, districts that were monitored switched from the multi-tiered bus system - where one fleet of buses carries multiple age groups - and moved towards one of two alternative methods. The former option that Wahlstrom's districts implemented was to offer one fleet of buses, but at the same time for multiple age groups. Another approach some schools switched to was instituting a wheel-and-spoke design (Wahlstrom 6), in which all buses follow a route surrounding the school, instead of having predetermined point-to-point routes. Sports and extracurricular schedules also shifted in accordance with a different start time. From Wahlstrom's findings, those interested in changing a school's start time should opt for the most drastic change of 8:30 A.M. or later. This maximizes benefits for students while minimizing the amount of disruption a community undergoes from such a change (Wahlstrom 6).
Although many perceived issues with changing start times don't seem to actually manifest, some are valid concerns that do need to be addressed. Wahlstrom found that students in sports programs may have to miss part of their curriculum in order to attend pertaining functions, and that parents may have scheduling conflicts with when schools start and end. Schools may also end closer to local rush-hour, which could lead to problems with traffic flow (Wahlstrom 6). The latter two of these problems can be solved with a stronger infrastructure; local traffic officials can work to improve traffic near school areas before and after school, and stronger school bus funding can allow more buses to take children to and from home instead of requiring parents to. More funding towards schools could also be used to create and maintain before and after-school programs that can keep kids safe until a parent or guardian can pick them up (Wahlstrom 6).
Some may say that students will simply sleep later in response to a later start time. This isn't completely untrue, but it doesn't mean that students wouldn't benefit from a later start time. Lo's findings indicate that even though students slept slightly later when start times shifted, the delay in rise times was much more substantial. The number of students who had at least 8 hours in bed on weekdays more than doubled from about 7% to roughly 16% of students (3). Even though a minority of students still reported 8 hours of sleep on weekdays, it's still a substantial increase from the previous amount, and the well-being of all students surveyed became significantly better; fewer depressive symptoms were reported, and negative moods became less prevalent (Lo 3).
Most scholars would agree that adolescents need at least 8-9 hours of sleep per night, but America among other countries suffer from a crisis of sleep deprivation for these teenagers. Some may place blame on the students themselves, but the fact of the matter is that the early start times of schools not only are a major factor of sleep deprivation, but they create conditions that worsen the mental health of students, stifle academic ability, and promote situations like car accidents, as well as risky behaviors such as drug abuse. In order for students to flourish, they need to be given the opportunity to get the sleep they need, and that starts with changes on a foundational level to shift the morning bell to 8:30 A.M.