For teenagers and their parents, preparing for the start of a school day can be akin to waking a hibernating bear.
While adults for generations have blamed sloth for the difficulty of rousing a sleeping teen, studies have suggested that biological factors play a role in sleeping patterns. As the American Academy of Sleep Medicine writes on its website, “During adolescence, internal circadian rhythms and biological sleep drive change to result in later sleep and wake times.”
Because of that, a later start to the school day has multiple benefits for students. A 2018 survey in Seattle found that students’ sleep increased an average of 34 minutes a night after school start times were moved to one hour later. Studies also have found that academic performance and attendance rates improve with a later bell schedule.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teens who do not receive adequate sleep are more likely to perform poorly in school; engage in unhealthy behaviors; be overweight; eschew physical activity; and suffer from symptoms of depression.
“School start time has serious implications for how students learn and perform in their education,” said Horacio de la Iglesia, a professor at the University of Washington. “Adolescents are on one schedule. The question is: What schedule will their schools be on?”
That is a question being considered in the Evergreen and Vancouver school districts. Evergreen officials altered school times for high schools in 2016; recently, they announced changes for the 2023-24 school year in middle schools and elementary schools.
Now, Vancouver Public Schools officials are considering schedule changes. High schools, which currently start at 7:30 a.m., would begin at 8:40 a.m., with dismissal times also pushed back. Middle schools would see start times moved from 8:55 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Wendy Smith, a member of the Vancouver school board who teaches in the Evergreen district, said: “Before we pushed back our start times in Evergreen, I was maybe getting six, seven students in a class when first period started. And then when we adjusted, I had a full classroom. It’s just hard for anybody to be alert and ready to learn at 7:40 regardless of age. I don’t think that’s a teenager thing. I think that’s a human thing.”
While an altered schedule might benefit teens — and teachers — it can be a burden for parents. It would change the morning schedule for families and would create difficulties for parents who take their children to school while on the way to work. A later dismissal time also can play havoc with after-school extracurricular activities such as athletics and with after-school jobs or day care duties involving younger siblings.
Those issues must be considered as districts seek a balance that will work for a majority of families. But in weighing the factors, it seems that academic performance should be preeminent. If studies — and local anecdotal evidence — suggest that teens are better able to learn, then the school day should be moved back.
For the past 25 years or so, researchers have supported a change to school times. As advocacy group School Start Time summarizes: “While teenagers are notorious for causing their own sleep difficulties — staying up too late, playing with electronic gadgets, and generally burning the candle at both ends — sleep loss among adolescents is confined primarily to school nights.”
In other words, they can hibernate on weekends.
