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  • Essay / The advantages of starting school later

    In a society where more is expected of adolescents and where school work is more difficult than that of previous generations, it is necessary for the school day to start and ends later. Early registration times created negative psychological effects among adolescent students. Additionally, other schools across the country have made it possible to start the school day later without having to scrap their athletics schedule. Early start times have also been proven to lead to lower performance levels among students. Overall, it is possible to start school later while still maintaining the school's sports program while improving each student's well-being and future. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Biologically, a teenager's body cannot start relaxing at seven in the evening like a normal adult. Physically, it takes longer for someone in their teens to fall asleep much later at night. So, because adolescents fall asleep late at night and wake up around six in the morning on average, it is difficult for adolescents to get enough sleep (Stanford). Teenagers sleep on average about 6.5 hours per night. As a teenager, teens should get at least 9.5 hours of sleep. Science Daily surveyed 280 teenage students and found that "78% of students said it was difficult to get up in the morning...Only 16% said they regularly got enough sleep...70% thought their grades would improve if they slept more… [and] 90% think their academic performance would improve if school started later. Not only that, but these "teens surveyed said they didn't feel alert when taking tests early in the morning, and they didn't think they could perform at the peak of their abilities early in the morning." Not only would postponing the school day help teens get enough sleep, but it would also prevent teens from suffering adverse psychological effects. Psychologist James B. Maas of Cornell University believed that "nearly all adolescents, when they reach puberty, become walking zombies because they get far too little sleep." Even some of our nation's top sleep experts believe that teens need more sleep to function properly during the school day. Adequate sleep is essential for improving student performance levels, which will eventually lead to better grades (Carpenter, APA). Studies have been conducted in every state across the country to see if later start times are really better for students. Some Minnesota schools have changed their start time from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. or 7:25 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Statistics showed that "students at a school with an 8:37 a.m. start time slept about an hour longer, had less difficulty staying awake at school, and had better grades than students at school." 'a school where the start time was 7:15 a.m.' (Cline, Psychology Today). Even though students showed improved functioning and better grades, people complained that the later start time interfered with sports and parents' schedules. One of the problems people find with having a later school day is that it interferes with the after-school sports program. But for sports teams that would normally have started after school, it would make sense to move practices or meetings to take place before school...