School starts way too early in the morning for today’s busy teens, depriving them of the sleep needed to learn and stay healthy. The early starts times can affect teens’ health and ability to concentrate during the day.

The article, “Sleepy Teens: High School Should Start Later in the Morning” in USA Today states that students who start later in the day have improved grades and are healthier.  The later classes begin, the article states, the more academic performance improves.  Students are less stressed than other students who start earlier in the day.  

In the article, physician M.Safwan Badr said, “It makes absolutely no sense. You are asking kids to learn math at a time their brains are not even awake.” Studies have shown that today’s teens are chronically sleep deprived.  Teens who don’t get enough sleep are at a higher risk for being overweight, depressed and using tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs but are less likely to get enough exercise. It also states that over time, people who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to develop heart diseases and type 2 diabetes.

Jazmyne Smith, a sophomore in WHBHS, agrees with a later start time.  She said, “Starting school at 9:00 am is a good idea because students are given a lot of work to do at home, especially if they’re in any AP classes. This means that they may be up late some nights and end up not getting enough sleep.”

She also included, “If you get earlier in the morning, you are able to make a plan about what you’re going to do that day. If you get up late then you’ll be trying push yourself and you will be all over the place. You won’t have anytime to think about what you are doing.”

 Mrs. A, WHBHS school nurse, said,  “Starting school later might not affect students because students would take advantage of this and stay up later.”  However, she continued, “Some students might use this as an advantage, mostly athletes, because they will the extra time to get homework done and get more sleep. This could also help students get a more healthy start in the day because students might eat breakfast.”

The negative effect of a later start in the day is practice and games for sports would be later, making it more difficult with minimal amount of daylight in a day.  Teens hoping for after school job would also have fewer hours to work.

Overall, the benefits of a later start time