Teenagers are having problems with sleep. School nights are always the same, and parents are urging their kids to sleep. But some teens just want to stay up late and do some work, or just lie in bed wide awake. But a new study confirms that teens need a sizable amount of sleep. A study on teens collected teens sleeping durations and found out that all sleeping durations were from 8 to 10 hours. Older teens need less sleep to function well. “A 17- or 18-year-old does not need as much sleep as a 14-year-old in order to function on a daily basis,” Fuligni, a scientist conducting a sleep experiment on teens, said. People at the same age may also have different durations of sleep. This depends on health problems. Kids with anxiety and depression need more sleep to feel well than kids with no anxiety and depression. Should teenagers follow their internal clocks or school schedule to sleep and wake up? Which one is more important?
School starting late has a considerable benefit on the health of students as well as better academic performances. Adolescents, when having a sufficient amount of sleep, tend to have better moods when they wake up. A study led by Andrew Fuglini monitored the sleeping times of 419 teens from ages 13 to 19 for two weeks to rate their moods and feelings, such as happiness, anxiety, and pain. The study found that teens had good moods after a night of eight to 10 hours of sleep. When teenagers get enough sleep, they display an increased ability to effectively cope with stress at schools. In addition, starting school later can reduce the risk of car accidents, the top cause of teenage death, which in turn, improves teenager safety. Researchers led by Dr. Judith Owens analyzed motor vehicle accidents data involving adolescents in Fairfax County in Virginia, before and after the implementation of delayed school start time. The results revealed that the 16 to 18 year old drivers had a significant drop in crash rate from 31.63 to 29.59 out of 1000 drivers after delayed school start time. Moreover, A later school start could lead to better academic performance. When adolescents could get enough sleep, they would pay more attention to class, absorb what the teacher teaches them, and perform well in tests. A group of researchers from three different universities conducted a study by tracking the academic performance of teens at a school for four years. Within four years, the school starting time was 08:50, 10:00, 10:00, and 08:50. They found out that during the 10 o’clock school years, there was a 12% increase in the number of students who were making good academic progress and improving on grades.
While studies reveal that there are academic advantages for adolescents if school has later start time, adolescents could still excel academically even if school begins early in the day. School starting early can buy adolescents more time for after-school tutoring in school because school ends early. According to an article in the Baltimore Post-Examiner, out of 30 high schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, 3 high schools ranked highest for college readiness, algebra, and English proficiency by US News and World Report all begin classes at 7:25 a.m. This shows that schools that begin early in the day still can excel academically because students have more time for after-school tutoring. Furthermore, an earlier school start allows teenagers to have more time in the afternoon for extracurricular activities outside of the school. When school starts early, school can end early. When school ends early, teenagers will have more time attending extracurricular activities outside of school such as swim team, debate club, or music lessons. Leigh Ann Morgan wrote “If school districts change their start times, these activities will be pushed later in the day. This would make it difficult for students to participate in extracurricular activities outside of school.” Similarly, adolescents can do homework earlier when school start times are early. Teenagers whose school starts early and ends early could go home early and get their homework done early. Research shows that most teens need about three or more hours of homework each day for school homework, like doing research on the internet to finish school projects. According to a 2001 study, students that get schools who start early have the advantage of walking home and getting more time with homework.
Scientific research and evidence has shown that it is in the best interest of teenagers to follow their internal clock, rather than school schedule. Teenagers as students, of course, dream of sleeping more each day; but it does not mean they are lazy or lack ambition. Scientists explain that the sleep cycles change when older kids enter the stage of adolescence. They naturally go to school late and wake up late because of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. Ample studies found that adolescence cannot stop this melatonin-induced sleep mode until at least 8:00 a.m. This explains why later school start time is desirable. According to the website Eachnight.com, when teens are sleep-deprived, they often quickly grab a cup of coffee to keep their energy up. This will later have the consequence of “crash hours”. Too much caffeine also causes jittery, heart complications, and much more mental health problems. When school starts late, teenagers can rely less on caffeine. School starting later therefore results in better physical health. According to an article, “Pros and Cons of Later School Start Times”, when sleeping the body repairs and reinforces itself during the night. When we wake up, it stops our body from doing so. This can lead to decreased immune function and increased inflammation, which means additional stress on the body. Also, adolescents who lack sleep are more prone to Type 2 diabetes, obesity, injuries due to drowsiness, and high blood pressure. School starting late has much more benefits than school starting early.
The relationship between teeagers’ internal clocks and school schedules is a negative one. Teens’ hormones tell them to sleep later and wake up late. Typically, school starts early in the day and teenagers stay up late. This leads to less than 8 hours of sleep for teenagers. The best way to fix this negative relationship is to start school late in the morning. Having school later start time could lead to many benefits for teenagers, including better academic performance, better mood with less stress, reduce the risk of car accidents, and better mental and physical health. Therefore, I support the idea that teenagers’ internal clocks are more important.
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