"Given that the primary focus of education is to maximize human potential, then a new task before us is to ensure that the conditions in which learning takes place address the very biology of our learners." (Mary A. Carskadon, PhD) High-Schools throughout the United States can start as early as 7:15 am. Studies are proving that this is having a very negative effect on the student body. Not only are the students not performing as well as they could, but their physical and mental health is in jeopardy too. Schools should start later in the day.
First, the early start times have been proved to be affecting the teenager’s health. Dr. Judith Owens, Director of Sleep Medicine at Children’s National Health System, says “The research …show more content…
Suicide is one of the top three causes of death among people from the ages of fifteen to thirty-four years old. “Among those adolescents saying they were unhappy or tense most often, 73% felt they were not getting enough sleep at night and 59% felt too sleepy during the day. Teens who slept more than nine or more hours on school nights reported much more positive mood than their peers. Those adolescents who most often felt unhappy or sad than their peers were also more likely to fall asleep in school, have difficulty falling asleep at night and think they have a sleep problem.” (National Sleep Foundation, 2006) Teenagers fluctuating hormones play a big part in their typical easily agitated demeanor, but is sleep deprivation affecting the emotions more than we thought? The results of many different studies are saying yes, sleep deprivation may be a root of many emotional issues teens encounter. If teenagers are waking up early and still half asleep, they are going to remain drowsy throughout the day. One of the most prominent symptoms of depression is a lack of interest in activities they were once interested in. If a student wants to go to school but shows no interest or motivation during their high school years, most likely they are exhausted during the days and they do not know why. Again, student’s internal clocks differ from adults and sending a student to school that early …show more content…
When a teen is drowsy while seated at a desk during a class, are they retaining any of the information their teacher is feeding to them? No, when a teen is tired their brain is not going to process and keep information the same way it would when rested. Dr. Daniel P. Cardinali says in Chrono education: How the Biological Clock Influences the Learning Process, “Two main, though not mutually exclusive, hypotheses have been predominant in interpreting sleep: (i) sleep is restorative for brain metabolism; (ii) sleep serves memory consolidation and the learning process.” Sleep serves memory consolidation and the learning process; Sleep is one of the most influential things on how a teenager learns. There have many recent studies proving that a teen who sleeps is going to learn and behave better than a teen who doesn’t sleep. Forty to sixty minutes of extra sleep can be the difference between a student's SAT score who does not get that extra sleep time. If a student goes to sleep at eleven, the average time a teenager in high school falls asleep, and wakes up at six o’clock, they are only getting seven hours of sleep opposed to the minimum of nine hours of sleep. Going over the fact that the internal clock of a teenager isn’t ‘awake’ until an estimated eight am at least, that means the child shouldn’t be expected to learn anything that early in the morning when they