Later school starting times can make a big difference. I, personally, would love to have later school times than normal, even
by just 30 minutes. Later starting time have many physical and mental benefits for students, faculty, and staff.

As a student I speak only for myself when I say this, but I have a hard time finding a way to fall asleep early, earlier than 11 per-say. If I fall asleep before 11 for a nap, then I am very tired. And even though I know I have to wake up early the next day, I stubbornly refuse to go to bed earlier or just can’t and even an extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning seem like it would just be dream come true. And even though an extra 30 minutes does not seem like a lot when you add it up in total you get about 5,400 minutes of extra of sleep in just one school year which is, 90 hours which then calculates to about 3.75 days in that amount of time, then it counts.

A healthy teen needs about 8-9 hours of sleep a night and with a normal teen schedule that goals seem just near impossible. I’ve had times where I came home around 4 p.m. and did my homework, projects, etc all the way up until like 10:30 p.m. and imagine if I had sports that evening or some other activity, then add in having a decent social life, eating, sleeping, hygiene…it just seems like an impossible challenge to tackle. A mere 30 extra minutes in the day seems like a reasonable request given the amount of stuff needed to accomplish in a day.

The consequences of teen sleep deprivation range from a series of health issues for short term and long term problem. It decreases learning opportunities because of exhaustion; it impairs students’ ability to be alert, pay attention, solve problems, cope with stress and retain information. Students’ moods and health are affected by sleep; if they come to school feeling terrible mentally and physically, they are in no shape to retain and learn new information. And the teachers and staff could also gain from having a later starting time by allowing them get a few more extra minutes of snoozing so they can be better rested to work with students.

All of these skills are needed in a classroom and school environment in order to succeed and do well. If the school’s intentions and goals for us students are to prosper and succeed, why not change the rules in favor of the students,