whee i just did a presentation on this...

should schools start and end at a later time so teens can get more sleep?

consider
-lack of sleep among teens
-how the time to go to school becomes earlier as we move up from elementary to junior high to high school. (at least it is in my case)
-too much homework/studying

my school starts at 7:45, but the bus picks us up at 6:45. we get to school around 7:15 and then we just do w/e we need to do before school starts (homework, make up a test/quiz, music stuff, etc).
its not mandatory to get to school this early, though.
i think that school should start later because it's been proven that teens biological clocks "wake up" at a later time. which means that if we go to school later, we learn better.

There's a reason why we have breakfasts

I don't mind the time the school starts now. Some of my college classes start at 9.15am but I wake up at 7.45 and leave at 8.15 since the buses are hell to get on. Too many people getting on them

You can 'edit' your sleeping pattern as well. If you go to sleep around the same time and make yourself wake up around the same time then you will end up going to sleep and waking up around that time. It really all depends on how much sleep you get.

i know my school starts at 726 first period but if we do start later that just gives teens a better reason to go to bed later. i know i push the limit by going to bed at 12 that doesnt give me a whole lot of sleep but if i found out school starts 3 hours later then i will probably go to sleep at 1.

Na, school shud be 10 hours a day, with no breaks and back to the school rules in Victorian times. as i wud say and spell incorrectly *sarcasim* *sarcasim*

i believe that MIDDLE schools should start around 10am. because middle school is when you are growing the most. and you need more sleep, and thats also rebelion time, i think it would make things a lot easyre on kids to grow up.

my school starts at a different time than yours...mine starts at 8:30!
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but i think that school shoule start between 7:30 and 8:30 because even though teens have lack of sleep, 90 percent of the time they don't get enough sleep is because they are out partying. the other 10 percent is due to studies or other valid reasons.
and since we are getting older, we should be able to wake up earlier and start school earlier because it is getting us prepared for the real world.
on this next point, i am talking from my point of view...
i think that if teens/kids would actually pay attention, not talk, do their homework in school than there would not be so much homework. now, at my school, we get between 10 - 15 minutes to work on it before we have to go to next period. so even if you don't get any time before class to work on your homework, if you are paying attention during class and actually know the material, homework time and studying time would dramatically reduced.

I agree. I'm in Middle School and school starts at 8:15. Dude, I have to get up at 6:30 in the morning then the bus picks me up at 7:00.

Start school: 8:15.
End school:
Mon. - Tues. and Thurs. - Fri. 2:35
Weds. 1:35

if you need more sleep, than that means that you need to go to sleep earlier. even if that means sacrifices fun and friends for a day or so. there is always the weekends.
and i doubt that going to school later would help you out with growing up/rebelious problems.

I don't mind waking up early. Just give me shorter hours, and I'll worship you.

we barely have enough time for homework as it is..if we got home later, we still wouldn't sleep..

My school starts at 8:30
so I can't really complain

My middle school starts at 9. Even though I love sleeping till 8 in the morning, I wish they would make school start earlier. I want to be prepared to wake up early for high school, which for me, starts at 7:15 in the morning.

But yeah, schools that start early in the morning should consider to start school a little later. Like, schools that start at 7:15 could start at 7:45 or something.

everyone's sleep patterns are based off of sunlight, when there is sunlight.

in teenagers this bumps back 2-3 hours.

so teenagers sleep 2-3 hours later than adults (at night) and wake up even later.

this is the natural rythm of sleep for a teen.

thats not 100 percent true. other factors include a persons schedule. what if someone has work at night or someone starts school later.

a research studied showed a woman who was locked in a room for 3 months with nothing to do but read and it showed that in the next 3 months her average day for being awake was 44 hours. so if she didnt have a schedule her sleep wouldnt have been affected.

I'd rather school start later but that problem will soon be irrelevant in my life. COLLEGE (Yea, baby)

It makes no difference because there's always going to be someone who has an erratic sleep pattern. (Like me)

Getting a good night's sleep is 5 solid hours without interruption.

haha THAT my friend, is amazing. you are talented, and gifted.

that's without sunlight.

actually, any light will do.

when the body senses it's getting dark, it starts releasing a hormone that makes you tired.

and when it gets bright, it stops the hormone.

in teenagers, this hormone takes longer to have effect.

also, people can ignore the hormone. but it's still produced in relation to light.

I am college so late/early times dont apply to me. i can pick classes at any time. right now my earliest class is 11am each day

you know what, as crazy as that may sound, i think i totally agree, but this only should apply with high school students. all the points you made are correct. but i think that high school students have way more responisbilites than lets say, a 4th grader. middle schoolers have lots more responibilities than an elementary schooler, but no way even close the the stress of being in high school.

so i agree with you, if we go to school later, and get out later, then we can retain more information because we are fresh, AWAKE [<notice how a typed awake in all caps because falling a sleep in the middle of a lecture isn't all that good when you want to pass the class], and performing at your physical and mental best.

We learned about the biological clock in biology, also known as our circadian rhythm. We also learned that in a teenagers' body, the chemical melatonin--which makes us sleepy when it's dark--is released later at night, therefore, causing us to sleep later and getting up early which makes us lose sleep and be tired.
Our school starts at the same time, too. But I believe that since our school is on a block schedule, we should start every day at 8:20am, since that's when we start on Wednesdays (it's our late start days)..

It's possible to train yourself to sleep at different hours and different lengths. At boyscouts, my friend could wake up naturally after 4 hours of sleep from midnight to 4.

There's no need to change most school hours, as classes usually start after 7 (I hope). Unless if one totally blows off any responsibility, then a good chunk of work can be done.

If some is incomplete, there's always study hall/cut gym/do it in other classes

oh i did a persuasive essay on this in the beginning of the school year .. but its not all about sleep (but it was sleep mainly) .. i agree with starting school later. absolutely.

man. here i hafta wake up at 6:00 a.m. and then take the school bus at 7:00 a.m. we get to skool around 7:30 and skool starts at 7:45. school ends at around 3:15. why cant it start at 10:00 a.m. instead. 11's ok too : )

having school start at 745 was fine in hs. but now that im in college, i cant imagine how i possibly woke up before 6am for 4 years. my first class is at 11am every day and i still have trouble getting up for it =/

I'd hate getting out of school so late. It's good as it is :)