Sleep is a critical necessity that a human being requires to function throughout the day.  Sleep contributes to a student’s academic performance, helps them stay focused, and improves concentration. However, as students, we attend school early in the morning daily. According to Healthline over 73% of students are sleep deprived or do not get the adequate amount of sleep to properly function at school.  At the age of being a teenager, we shift into a change in our circadian rhythm, a cycle that regulates our sleep or a phase that is also called sleep phase delay. Teenagers naturally sleep in later due to the biological clock we have and we are more prone to stay up later at night doing homework or relaxing. Teenagers have a different sleep cycle than adults and younger kids. They also tend to wake up later too. The lack of sleep creates an effect that limits a teen’s ability to go through the school day prepared.

However, as students, we aren’t rested well enough to continue the school day and it all begins from the time we wake up for school. Our school begins classes at around 8:20, however, buses arrive around 7:40 to pick up students. Students are likely waking up around 6-7 in the morning to get ready. The mix of teenagers naturally staying up later and waking up early for school is an unhealthy schedule and can have academic consequences. Not only that, it can lead to health consequences as well. The age range 13-18 years requires over 8-10 hours of sleep regularly, it is reported by the CDC that teenagers sleeping less than 8 hours do not reach the minimum, even just 7 hours.

“My family has a very bad sleep schedule as a whole, we typically go to sleep from 10 PM to 2 AM on school nights but typically go from 11 PM to 1 AM,” said freshman Allison Avila Rodriguez.

Students that have been reporting to sleep less than 8 hours are shown to have more poor mental health and difficulties doing homework. It is also shown they are most likely to have lower attention spans, poor academic performance, injuries and behavior issues. I believe later school times can improve students’ state of health, both mentally and physically. The latest school start time in MCPS is Haydon Elementary. They start school around 9:05 AM, which is ideal for the students age range through elementary. However high school students do a ton of more work compared to elementary students. I think if many high schools started around 9 AM there could be an improvement academically. The CDC has stated that with later start times, students have shown improvements academically, and have more energy.

“I think  later times might help students because you see a lot of students napping during classes,” said  sophomore, Jayla Tibbs.

Kamila Ulloa, a freshman, said “I think schools should start at 9:00 AM because we would be able to sleep in, and most students wouldn’t be falling asleep in their classes or failing because we would have enough energy in the morning.”

Although later school times would be beneficial for the students,  sometimes it might not be able to work out. Later start times means buses will arrive later,  but it can cause road traffic, and increase chances of road delay. It can also mess up parents’ work schedules. Another concern is after-school activities and transportation and how those could be affected.

“It would affect teachers because they will change their own schedule to fit, they also have a better preparation time” said freshman Genesis A.

What do you think if this circumstance ever occurs? Let me know your thoughts!