When I first came to college, one of the best parts was not having to wake up at 6 a.m. to go to school. Waking up at 9 a.m., I was more focused and awake and better able to concentrate on the material I was learning in class. Many schools in Northern Virginia, as well as in other parts of the country, have decided to follow a similar path by starting high schools later to ensure students receive more sleep and therefore remain focused in class.
The National Sleep Foundation has found that while teenagers require a little more than nine hours of sleep per night, two-thirds of all teenagers generally receive seven hours or less. Research conducted by the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement says that teenagers generally have a “late-to-bed, late-to-rise” sleeping pattern and require sleep from approximately 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. As a result, students often get sleepy in the morning (as schools start generally before 8 a.m.) because they are not yet supposed to be awake. Biologically speaking, the body produces certain chemicals that makes a person sleepy during that time frame. Perpetual sleep deprivation, the research further notes, increases one’s chances of depression as well increased chances of using alcohol and drugs. Moreover, common sense dictates that students will have a harder time absorbing and retaining information if they are not fully awake.
Basing my judgments upon my experience at college, as well as the research above, I initially thought that delaying high-school start times was a great idea. But after thinking about the issue more, I think there are some problems with the proposition. I do not think that starting school late necessarily solves the problem of students being too tired to focus in the mornings. Since schools will be starting later in morning, students will remain at school until later in the afternoon. Adding on after-school activities means that students will often not go home until dinner time or later. Students will start homework later in the day, and they will stay up later to finish it. So starting school later might not change the number of hours students sleep. Instead, it will simply change the time frame during which they sleep.
I do think, however, that starting school later in the day can be useful if it is complemented with other changes. It is important to examine why students stay up late. Students often stay up late because of a heavy load of schoolwork. One possible way to improve circumstances, then, is to decrease the amount of homework given. Schools can perhaps look to education systems abroad for inspiration. Finland has one of the best education systems in the world and scores consistently high on international standardized exams. Momentarily putting aside the faults of standardized testing, one of the reasons for scoring so high is that Finland focuses on ensuring students learn a lot while being at school, so large amounts of homework becomes unnecessary.
Another possibility is to complement a later school day with a shorter school day. Schools would start later, but they would let out at the same time instead of extending their hours. School years could be a little longer to make up for the time lost on shorter school days. I think school systems could argue that longer school years might put financial burdens on school systems, especially those already suffering. Perhaps, the solution may be matter of restructuring how funding is allocated for different purposes rather than necessarily requiring additional funding.
Regardless, I’m glad that the issue of sleep deprivation among high school students is being addressed. Looking back at my own high school experience, I think I would have learned more in my classes if I were not always so sleep-deprived. I would have also been able to grasp certain concepts faster. Moreover, I would have probably enjoyed learning, as I do in college, because my focus would have been on learning rather than wanting to sleep. So I can understand the reasoning behind starting schools later. But, without proper changes, later school hours is not the solution. Rather, it is only one part in a series of reforms that our education system needs in order to ensure students learn and succeed.
Fariha Kabir is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily.
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