How many people do you know like to sleep in? The answer is most. As you all know the late bell for 1st period rings at 7:20am. So most likely that means we have to get up in between 5 and 6am to get ready to go to school. It’s a hassle and it’s really annoying to not hit snooze. But what if I told you sleep is more important than you know? It’s more than just the action of laying in bed until 1pm.
Most of us go to sleep around 10pm and 1am on weeknight, Monday through Friday. That means you are roughly getting about 5 to 8 hours of sleep a night. It sounds like a lot but really isn’t that much considering the vast majority of us are still growing. After looking at some experiments in sleep, scientists have found that people that range from the ages of 13 – 18 need at least 8 – 12 hours of sleep for the body to function properly. This furthermore means that having only about 6 hours of sleep isn’t good for a growing body.
You may ask “how does sleep come into play with school?” Well, I have an answer. We are expected to go to school for roughly 7 hours a day excluding everyone’s extracurriculars which adds about an additional 2-3 hours. That means we are working 10 hours a day on 6 hours of sleep. The numbers just don’t add up. I bet you have noticed people sleeping in class. Sometimes intentional, and sometimes not. This can be a result of not sleeping enough. This furthermore results in bad grades because, no one is getting enough sleep.
This is how we solve this issue. We should have school start at 9:20am instead on 7:20. 2 extra hours to sleep and or get ready will do a lot. First of all we will see a a large increase in mental health. I find that people who get more sleep are generally more happy. Furthermore a later start time will increase our grades. If we have more sleep, we will have a better attention span, thus leading to higher grades. On a growing body, and mind 7:20 is a harsh start time. If we can manage to get school to start at 9:20am, think of all the benefits. This all has a domino effect.
In conclusion, it would be so much more beneficial to start school later. For you, for me, and for the future.
