Should School Start Later?

Why Should School Start Later? Everybody learns better when they are awake. Why should kids have to suffer from bad test scores? In more than 40 states, 75% of schools start earlier than 8:30 a.m.. Scientists have done many tests on groups of kids. School should start later because kids brains don’t function until 10 am, kids aren't getting enough sleep and they need 9 or more hours of sleep. So, kids brains don't function until 10 a.m. Scientists took a class of kids and taught them a concept for 1 week. Then they tested on it right away in the morning. Most kids got a C or below. Researchers analyzed data from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming. They found that shifting the school day later
Professor Russell Foster said teens would acheive more if they were allowed to have a lie-in and not start their classes until the afternoon. Lie-in means remain in bed after the normal time for getting up. The Oxford University neuroscientist said grumpy teenagers follow different sleep patterns from adults - making them more alert in the afternoon than in the morning. Next, kids aren't getting enough sleep. . “Getting enough sleep is important for students’ health, safety, and academic performance,” Anne Wheaton, the lead author and epidemiologist in the CDC’s Division of Population Health, said in a statement. “Early school start times, however, are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep they need.” Both the CDC and the pediatricians’ group cited significant risks that come with lack of sleep, including higher rates of obesity and depression and motor-vehicle accidents among teens as well as an overall lower quality of life. Children aren’t getting enough sleep, and many parents do not identify their children’s sleep problems as an issue that should be addressed. The poll results show that on average, children get less sleep during a 24-hour period than recommended by doctors. For
Scientists did a study on a group of kids, some slept for 6 hrs, some for 7.5 hrs and some for 9 hrs. The kids that slept for 6 were tired and didn't do well in school. The ones that had 7.5 did slightly better and the ones that had 9 were clearly the best in the class. Some sleeping ideas that I found at the National Sleep Foundations website are:
Teach school-aged children about healthy sleep habits.
Continue to emphasize need for regular and consistent sleep schedule and bedtime routine.
Make child's bedroom conducive to sleep – dark, cool and quiet.
Keep TV and computers out of the bedroom.
Avoid caffeine. Also, in a landmark study in 1998 of adolescent sleeping habits, the Brown University researcher Mary Carskadon followed 10th-graders who were making the switch to a 7:20 a.m. start time, about an hour earlier than their schedule as ninth-graders. Despite the new schedule, the students went to bed at about the same time as they did the year before: 10:40 p.m. on average. Sleep is food for the brain. Skipping sleep can be very harmful, especially if your driving. Thats why people don't recommend driving at