Students are not getting enough sleep, some would say, with the current school schedule. Students sleeping patterns are being interrupted because of these early waking times.

Students need at least nine and a quarter hours of sleep a night to be fully rested. That would mean a typical high school student would have to fall asleep at nine and wake up at six to get the amount of sleep he or she needs. Yet, students have become sleep deprived because of the early waking times.

High schools starting later would allow students to do their homework in the morning or at night and still get the appropriate amount of sleep that they need.

Until around the age of ten you are able to wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day to begin, though once you hit pre – teen years your biological clock starts to shift forward making you more awake later at night so you fall asleep later and you wake up later.

Later on, once you become an adult it shifts back allowing you to fall asleep earlier at night and wake up earlier in the morning. If schools were to open later, students sleep patterns would not be interrupted.

One of the counter arguments against a later school opening time is that this would cause students to fall asleep even later than they do now. Studies have been done on this, however, and the students usually fall asleep at eleven or later regardless of their wake up time.

Linda Huang a student at Harriton said, “I think a later school opening would allow us to be more refreshed and focused in our morning classes.”

Students would be more awake in their morning classes and would therefore be able to preform better if they were able to wake up later. They would also be less likely to be tardy to their first class in the morning because they wanted to sleep in or even missed hearing their alarm clock because they were so tired.

Technology also has a significant impact on when students go to bed. It can affect how much sleep teenagers are getting. The glow that comes from the screens of the devices can delay a sleep-inducing hormone called melatonin.

Yes, teenagers do fall asleep really late sometimes because they fail to turn off their electronic devices. If a student turned off the computer an hour before bed time, the impact would be less.

Changing the school start time has other benefits besides aligning with the sleep patterns of students. Student athletes preform better with a later school opening. School districts that have made the time switch find that athletes are preforming at a much better rate than before the change. Student athletes are also 68% less at risk of injuring themselves when playing sports if they get eight or more hours of sleep.

Athletics and after school activities would definitely have to change times and schedules if school were to open later. Students might have to stay after school later than they do now for theses activities in the afternoon; games for sports might be held later to accommodate a later start times.

The school might have to turn on lights outside for sports if they are running later. This might cause some problems for students who also do activities outside of school.

Mrs. Caine a English teacher at Harriton said, “I would not have a problem with it. But the stress would be on the students; it would be hard for kids to make up the work if they left school early for sports.”

The schedules for school would change if high school opened later. There are different ways that district officials could make the switch in time. Elementary schools starting at the time that high school now do is one solution. Just pushing back the start times of all school levels to fit within the students sleeping patterns could be possible.

Teachers are a huge part of school being able to run. If schools were to change start times, it would also affect their lives outside of teaching.

Senorita Novack said, “It would not affect me after school because I do not have kids, and I am not married. Other teachers that have kids usually bolt right after school ends to pick up their kids.”

The teachers said it would not affect their morning as much as the afternoon; in the morning, they would be able to do some things that they are not able to do right now like exercise. In the afternoon, there would be more problems for them like for the teachers who have kids, or if they are married. They might have to pay for child care because they don’t get off work until a certain time.

Another thing to consider is whether the community would support the school opening later.

Maddie Seltzer a student at Harriton said, “Everyone does not like to get up at the crack of dawn, even our parents.”

Some of the parents in the community have already gone to the school board to bring up this topic for discussion. The idea of school opening later has to be supported by the whole community, including workplaces where some high school students have jobs, and other activities for it to work.

Other communities and school districts have done this and have been successful. In Pennsylvania, Blue Ridge School District decided to push back the start time of their Middle and High Schools by 30 minutes so that their students were able to preform better during school hours.

Students are able to get the amount of sleep that they need to be prepared for the next day of school refreshed and ready to learn with the later start time.

The students at Harriton High School that I interviewed agreed that they would be more focused in their morning classes, and awake if school were to open later. They are unable to learn much of anything at 7:30 in the morning, which is when our school begins. They have not been able to get the full amount of sleep that teenagers need to be able to function at their best.