There are few arguments against the necessity of sleep. While the function of sleep is still a subject of scientific study, sleep is shown to be necessary for mental and physical well-being. In adolescents, sleep deprivation has been tied to increased probability of accidents and injury, while continued lack of sleep into adulthood is tied to such diseases as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Sleeplessness also increases irritability and causes depression and fatigue (although some note that other factors are responsible for adolescent irritability as well). Adolescents should sleep at least nine hours a night. The average is closer to seven, not accounting for the fact that many sleep less on school nights and try to compensate on weekends.
Whether a later starting time would provide extra sleep is less conclusive. Adolescent sleep cycles are shifted by biological and behavioral factors, and a later start time would be better suited to these cycles. Studies have shown that adolescents perform better later in the day and that for many, falling asleep earlier is biologically impossible. Schools with later start times have reported that students take advantage of this time to sleep, rather than staying up later; this further supports scientific evidence that sleeping patterns are biological and not a matter of choice. Studies of these schools support arguments that a later start time improves academic performance and student health.
Arguments against later start times focus upon the inconvenience. Students involved with athletics, work, extracurriculars, and other activities have difficulty scheduling these in after school and coordinating transportation, particularly when the rest of society functions on a different schedule. Others argue that adolescent sleeplessness is caused by factors of the lifestyle- such as caffeine intake, use of computers and television, and busy schedules- that would be unaffected by changing school hours.
2 comments:
Personally, I think that making school later would only make things even more inconvenient. Kids would only end up going to bed later, changing our biological cycles, probably for the worse.
I am really interested in your topic; I have heard a lot of discussion among friends about the issue, and it will be interesting to read the facts. The argument is clearly one that continually affects my own life, seeing that I was forced to wake up at an ungodly hour to make this comment.
Perhaps you can discuss the long term effects of sleeplessness. I think a lot of people who sleep very little in adolescence are the same people who will actually sleep less as adults. I was also interested in the argument that adolescents could not change their own sleeping habits. Was that a common observation? Would conditioning students to wake up later cause problems when waking up earlier in the future?
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