Recent studies at schools in Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wyoming all suggest that later school start times significantly improve student motivation and achievement. Students, with increased sleep, exhibited increased attendance rates, GPA and assessment scores, and student-class interaction, and teachers saw a decrease in disciplinary action and sleeping during instruction.
The optimal amount of sleep for a high school student is roughly 8-10 hours, but 70% of high school students fall short of this goal. Winchester Thurston’s current start time is 8:15, meaning that counting morning routine, breakfast and travel times, the average student might have to wake up around 7am or earlier, not including further complications. With sports and extracurriculars, as well as homework and SAT preparation, achieving the benchmark of 8 or 9 hours seems near impossible for many students, let alone 10 – and, even then – is there any time left for leisure or family bonding? Hobbies?
Insufficient sleep is associated with increased risk for poor mental health, obesity, and more. It also increases the risk of student-involved car crashes. And, schools involved in the study strongly showed higher achievements and attention from students with later start times. Getting proper sleep leads to benefits in memory, learning, and emotional regulation.
Many schools across the country are already delaying their start times. Students are then allotted much more time for sleep and leisure, leading to all of the improvements listed above. Of course, this may come at the expense of reducing break times to avoid too many scheduling conflicts, but the increase in student performance is more than obvious with this change, and all those involved in academics can benefit from it.
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