Later Start Helps Sleepy Teens
January 22, 2007
The good news is that some school districts have tried delaying the opening of the high school day. The bad news is that I graduated high school a decade ago.
Studies show that at least 20 percent of high school students fall asleep in class on a typical day, proof that high-schoolers are not getting enough sleep. What to do…
Educational researcher Kyla Wahlstrom has been following districts that changed their start times, tracking the effect on schools and students. The Minneapolis school district, for example, changed its start time from 7:20 to 8:40 a.m., giving its 12,000 high schoolers an extra hour and twenty minutes each morning. Wahlstrom says the students have benefited from the change.
“Students reported less depression when there was a later starting time,” Wahlstrom says. “And teachers reported that students were more alert and ready for learning. Parents reported that their children were easier to live with because their emotions were more regulated.”
Additionally, Wahlstrom found a decrease in the number of students who were dropping out of school or moving from school to school.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, more than 80 school districts around the country have now made the change to start their high schools later. These districts range from large, urban school districts, such as Minneapolis and Denver, to suburban districts, such as Jessamine County in central Kentucky.