School Needs to Start Later

School start times are way to early

More than 70% of schools start before 8:10 a.m., which means students roughly wake up one to two hours before school starts. By having this schedule most teenagers experience sleep deprivation due too not getting enough hours of sleep. Teens are proven to need at minimum 8-10 hours of sleep, this is because teen brains make sleep melatonin later at night whereas adults do not, according to Sleep Foundation.org. 

In specific, first period at Lakes High School starts at 7:25 a.m. This is way too early for teenagers and means some are awake as early as 5:30 a.m. 

Not only are students starting their day with insufficient sleep, but they are also juggling sports, academics, and being socially active for six to eight hours a day.  

How do students feel?

When getting an opinion from a Lakes student Sina A, she explains, ” I ultimately don’t think that starting school at 7:25 a.m., negatively impacts students but, I do think that if school started later in the morning, we would have more time to be prepared and be ready to learn.”

The feeling is somewhat shared with a student from Steilacoom High School, Irie H, that claims that even 7:35 a.m., (the time that she starts school), is way too early.   

“School can exhaust us, so we might not have enough time for school and extracurricular activities”.  Expanding the topic of extracurricular activities, students also have a life outside of school that takes up just as much time. This isn’t fair that they are expected to wake up 7:00 to 8:00. 

How much sleep do Lakes students receive each night?

After polling 98 Lakes students, asking them how much sleep they receive per night, the average was five to six hours of sleep. No wonder teens are struggling to learn! 

To sum it up, I think that school needs to start later in the day, not just for the benefits of Lakes High School students, but for the benefits of all schools that start before the time of 8 a.m. It is clear that school starting this early is the problem for many students, if school started later in the morning this would solve our issue for Lakes High School students.