Later School Starts for Lewisburg Teens

Q: Why can't teens just go to bed earlier?

A: Most teens can't fall asleep until 11pm due to the timing of their natural production of the sleep hormone, melatonin.

"Starting schools before 8:30 a.m. shows a tragic disregard for both the mental health of children and for science."

Opinion | Let Teenagers Sleep In (Published 2018) Starting schools before 8:30 a.m. shows a tragic disregard for both the mental health of children and for science.

Researchers compared high schools that started AFTER 8:30am to schools that started earlier. They found that schools that started later benefitted their students in many ways:

Support Lewisburg’s teenagers by allowing them to get enough sleep.

"We urge policy makers, school administrators, and communities to follow the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and make the challenging but important decisions necessary to tackle this problem and give youngsters an opportunity for healthier sleep." https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0748730419892118

Experts on sleep, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, recommend that middle and high schools start after 8:30am for the health and wellbeing of teens.

After a school district in Wyoming delayed the high schools' start time from 7:35 AM to 8:55 AM, the number of car crashes for teen drivers dropped by a whopping 70%.

Source:https://www.cbsd.org/cms/lib/PA01916442/Centricity/Domain/338/Impact%20of%20Later%20Start%20Time%20Final%20Report.pdf

Teens who start school later don't just stay up later, they sleep more!

Meanwhile, the the USA, many schools start class in the 7 a.m. hour....

High schools that have switched to starting times AFTER 8:30 a.m. have seen positive changes in their students!

Teens naturally sleep between ~11 p.m. - 8 a.m. Waking them too early puts them at significantly higher risk for depression, anxiety, and even su***de ideation.

Sources:
1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S108707922030054X?casa_token=VZmwrVRE_1QAAAAA%3AHcQN_KnbCO8HkDlbjD6ZYW64X79hYB1WfGOhwYxcr5RWUUNlB8HnvYKHDsX2nfvkak3pFH3nGQ

2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-014-0170-3

3. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/png/ajhb/2010/00000034/00000002/art00011

"Due to the delayed sleep-wake cycles, a 7:30 a.m. start for an adolescent is the equivalent to 4:30 a.m. for an adult."

Full report available here: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2109.html