Would Your Teen Benefit From A Later School Start Time?
There's a good chance that you've said to yourself that your teen isn't getting enough sleep. There's also a chance that it's not actually their fault.
There are a lot of reasons why teens don't get enough sleep. In the summer, there's just a ton going on and they hate to miss out on a good time. Late nights with their friends happen a lot in the summer, but what about during the school year?
Many parents blame their kids' lack of sleep on technology like staying up to watch TV, or scrolling for hours on their phones. Maybe it's the enormous amount of homework that they have to get done.
But science says that it's probably just their biological clock.
When kids hit their teens, their body clock changes and many of them don't really get tired until around 10 or 11pm. According to UCLA, the change is called "sleep phase delay." The need to sleep is delayed for about two hours.
So they're staying up longer but they're still getting up super early to get to school. With many schools starting before 8:30am, many students find themselves up at 5 am or earlier depending on their bus schedule.
The math is pretty simple. If you're going to bed at 11 and getting up at 5, and you should be getting around 9 hours of sleep (preferably between 8-10 hours)...it's just not enough!
So now, there's a new nationwide movement to get schools to start later. You can find it at www.startschoollater.net. The theory is that such early school times "are creating a generation deprived of the sleep that growing brains and bodies require."
There are a lot of reasons why a later school start time would create a problem. Later start times pushes everything else later in the day too. Extracurricular activities, shortened availability for work outside school, and cost. If you didn't watch the video above, you might want to do that before you make judgement.
What do you think? Would a later start time make your life better? Or worse?