Teen Time

Research at the University of Washington has suggested that the average teenager performs better after 8:30 a.m. This is because of what’s called the “teenage clock.” Teenagers biologically  function at a later schedule time than adults and younger children, leaving many teens unable to fall asleep before 11:00 p.m. This makes early start times challenging, and may leave many teens feeling sleep deprived. 

If a teen does not fall asleep until 11 p.m. yet has to wake up at 6 a.m, they are only getting 7 hours of sleep. However, teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep and preteens ages 6-12 need 9-12 hours of sleep. According to the Sleep Foundation (2023), almost 60% of middle schoolers and over 70% of high school students fail to get enough sleep.

Lack of sleep is not only affecting schools in CISD but schools across the state. None of the high schools in Montgomery County start at or after 8:30 a.m. and only 76 districts in Texas start after 8:30 a.m., meaning that only 12% of Texas school districts follow the recommendations of the CDC, AMA, and AAP.

Exhaustion can come with serious repercussions, including health and safety issues. Due to a lack of sleep, students often struggle to stay awake and alert in the mornings, making driving dangerous. Additionally, a lack of sleep increases the chance for teen depression. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2021), more than 14% of adolescents suffer from depression, and according to UCLA Health (2023), 9% of people between ages 15-24 have attempted suicide. 

The early school start times are also having a negative affect on student performance in school. Additionally, studies show that later start times help increase attendance in schools, as well as improve test scores(2022).

Although some people argue that later start times would leave students with less time for activities after school, this could be fixed by simply adjusting activities to “teen time” by offering the same amount of time for each activity.  Schedules would only need to be pushed back an hour. One could argue that pushing activities back would ultimately fail because of the time it becomes dark outside; However, thanks to a lovely invention from 1879 called the lightbulb, we can now see during the darkness of the night. All jokes aside, by shifting the day an hour, teenagers could get the recommended amount of sleep and still fit in their extracurricular activities. 

Apparently, some main concerns with a later start time are the issues of transportation and budgeting. By staggering start times, the district is able to utilize fewer buses, allowing them to pay fewer drivers. Another concern is employing additional drivers, which increase transportation costs. However, a compromise could be reached by switching elementary and high school start times. 

Studies have shown that earlier start times would not have a discernible negative effect on elementary school students, so the district could in good conscience switch high school and elementary school start times. This would cause elementary schools to start at 7:20, while high schools would start at 8:00 – a transition that may make it easier for parents to get their elementary students to school in the mornings without work conflicts. By switching start times, the district would be able to keep costs down, while providing high school students with a better chance for success in school. 

Most importantly, teenagers can get the sleep they desperately need!

Research from:

• https://www.uclahealth.org/news/suicide-rate-highest-among-teens-and-young-adults
• https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression#:~:text=In%202021%2C%20an%20estimated%203.7,population%20aged%2012%20to%2017.
• https://www.sleepfoundation.org/school-and-sleep/later-school-start-times#:~:text=Nearly%2060%25%20of%20middle%20schoolers,a%20lack%20of%20adolescent%20sleep.
• https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/later-school-start-times-more-popular-what-are-drawbacks