What time do you wake up for the average school day? Is it earlier than you would like to? Ever wish you could sleep in just a little more? Teens are not the same as adults in a lot of ways; sleep is one of them. We have to account for that when we think about when school starts. Today, let us all take time to discuss the start times for Eastmont High School and how it affects us as teens who need different things from the adults who made the system. Now, we will explore that idea and see what solutions keep our school running smoothly and our brains functioning properly.
According to the CDC, “…teenagers aged 13–18 years should sleep 8–10 hours per 24 hours.” How does that relate to Eastmont High School? Well, according to the National Library of Medicine, “…a delay in the timing of sleep during the second decade of life has been observed in over 16 countries on 6 continents.” What this means is that teenagers from all over the world have been proven to require sleep later in the night and wake earlier in the morning for this part of their lives. Teens go to sleep later and wake up later, not out of laziness or a lack of dedication, but because our brains are wired to do so. This is not only observed in the time that teens sleep but in the times that their brains produce melatonin (the chemical that makes you feel tired).
In “Later School Start Times More Popular, But What Are the Drawbacks?” the difference between adults and teens is explored further. “…To ask a teen to be up and alert at 7:30 a.m. is like asking an adult to be active and alert at 5:30 a.m.” (Tim Walker). Teens have a different sleep schedule, naturally staying up later, usually not going to bed until 11 pm. leading them to naturally sleep in later.
Now, starting school a few hours before the brain is ready to be awake is problematic because how is one meant to function if they are still producing melatonin? “…the American Medical Association recommends middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m” (Society of Behavioral Medicine). Imagine if late start Mondays were every day, imagine the sleep you would recover. You can learn better in 1st period if you are more awake, have more time to get ready in the morning, and have fewer times when you miss the bus because you woke up too late to get ready for the day. You would simply wake up in a better mood.
How can we implement this? Well, if we have school start at 8:45 —like late-start Mondays— then we can use that schedule as the whole week, Monday–Friday, schedule. We already see it working on Mondays, so classes are not too short to learn in, and to make up for the lost time, we could have school end a little later, from 2:45 to 3:30, and that still leaves time for any after-school activities or to walk to an elementary school to pick up a younger sibling. I also assume that if Eastmont High School starts later, we would see the younger schools also move their start times, making this less of an issue. This would help all teens have a better sleep schedule and show up more ready to learn and be social.
It is also worth mentioning that most jobs are from 9-5; it is not like waking up this early is preparing us for the real world, seeing as most of us will end up with a job that starts around 9 a.m. anyway. Unlike many other things that school is preparing us for, such as required attendance, job performance expectations, etc. Waking up this early is not common enough that we need to force every kid in East Wenatchee to do so every day. It is simply not justified by these means.
There is evidence that a better sleep schedule makes for better academic performance: “It is simply more difficult to concentrate when we are sleep deprived; this affects our ability to focus on and gather information presented to us, and our ability to remember even those things we know we have learned in the past” (Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School). This quote from Harvard tells us that sleep directly impacts academic performance and memory, improving sleep could easily improve many students’ grades and overall classroom performance, in turn making them more confident and motivated to keep trying.
It is also worth mentioning that Weatchhee High School starts an hour later than us and gets out at 3:25, showing us proof that a later schedule works just fine and they still have a late sstart monday, with shorter periods allowing a softer start to each week. Eastmont switching to this schedule would allow friends from across the valley to have more continuity to their schedules and help with planning sports events. If we all start and end at the same time, or close to the same time, then scheduling around our valley will be easier. However, the Wenatchee High School bell schedule is only one example, and we would need to come up with what works best for Eastmont, but it is still worth considering that Wenatchee has this schedule.
Starting school later can be helpful, but only if you do so correctly. Victoria Hiatt, one of Eastmont High Schools councelors, says, “I do think school should start a bit later, closer to 8. …I believe that starting later than 8 am would be wasting valuable energy.” This brings up an excellent point that starting too late would be counter-productive to acedemics which is the entire goal of discussing school start times! However, “College classes tend to be 1 hour, and students usually only take 3 classes a day. Why could we not mimic that schedule for high schoolers?” (Hiatt). Mimicking and preparing students for college is a wonderful thing to consider, seeing as high school is the transition from grade school to college, it would make sense to have some aspects of both in high school. Having a structure similar to college could also help Running Start students make their schedule flow better.
Another point is ending times; the high schools have to follow much stricter standards than colleges. “If school starts later, then you have to attend school later….. Do you really want to be here till 5?” (Hiatt) Mrs. Hiatt brings up a wonderful point, if you want to graduate on time, we have to have the same amount of school or shorter periods, and some teachers already struggle to get through lesson plans on Mondays, so we should probably find a middle ground that allows us to end school early in the afternoon but not have to drag ourselves out of bed too early. I personally feel 8:30 would be that middle ground, being able to get out from 3:00 – 3:30 allows us to have time after school and still not end up groggy and exhausted at the end of the week from sleep debt.
Acording too “Schools shift as evidence mounts that later start times improve teens’ learning and well-beingg” The epidemic of undersleeping has been on the rise over the last several years: “Between 2009 and 2021, the percentage of high school students who did not get enough sleep increased from 69% to 77%” (Weir). We see teens sleeping less and less, and if this progresses, how much sleep will our kids be getting? If we can put a stop to this now, then we can stop a dramatic drop in academics that could possibly result in multiple graduating classes struggling to get their grades up in time. Let’s get on top of this before it starts damaging the generation of kids that could be your surgeons someday. We want all our kids to have a good education, and getting sleep is essential to that.
I also feel the need to bring up that some students may use a later start to stay up later and negate the benefits of the later start, where I’m sure it would not make a difference to those students. However, many would use a later start to prepare and come to school much more rested and rejuvenated. This would impact those students academically very positively, and those who choose not to use this opportunity would see no difference. This change could only positively impact students both academically and health-wise.
Changing school start times to be later, closer to 8 or 9 a.m., would positively impact our students both academically and health-wise. We can’t ignore the epidemic that will befall the future or even the current generation of kids if we continue as we are. Teens have been proven to need to stay up and sleep in later than middle schoolers or adults, and it’s simply equitable to provide what this age group needs for their health and well-being, even if it’s different from the younger kids or teachers. If we can be aware of the possibility of overdoing this, then implement a strategy that works, then we can have a healthier school body and happier kids in our valley.
