Benefits of Moving the School Day Later The topic of taking a school day and moving the start time and end time later has been debated federally and locally in the past few years. Scientists argue that adolescents need anywhere around 9 hours a sleep per night. But many students run of a cycle of going to bed at 11 p.m., and having to wake up at 6:30 a.m. or earlier depending on the circumstances. When students get this recommended sleep, they have shown due to scientific research to be much more productive in class. But moving the school day back has many contraries. Schools would need to raise 6.7 million dollars and would require on average 80 new buses. It would also push back many after school activities to even 7 p.m. Nerveless, I feel that the productive overpower the contraries and moving the school day back can increase productivity in school based on research.
To get the recommended 9 hours, students would need to go to bed at 9:30 pm. While this sounds nice, scientist’s dean this sleep time as “Socially, that’s not realistic. Academically that’s not realistic. And even biologically, that’s not realistic.” Adolescents follow a unique sleep clock that makes it harder for a teen to relax and sleep earlier. From shortly after puberty until well into the college years, laboratory experiments have shown that the body’s internal clock is set on a sleep block of 11 P.M. to 8 A.M. or later. Some doctors even say that “..It is almost abusive to them.” Them meaning us students. When certain schools decided to move their start times from 7-8:30 researchers found that students were more alert and class grades were higher.
It is proven with more sleep, students get higher marks on tests and quizzes. In reading test scores increases 1% in reading, and 1.8% in math. On teens in particular, 14 year old test scores rose a full 3.7% in reading and a 2.8% in math.