A Call to Start School Later

My school system wants to change their 7:17 a.m. high school start time to 8:30 a.m. You'd think the sky was falling. I've been watching my district try to make this change since we moved here 16 years ago. Back then my oldest child was 12. As a medical writer, I was concerned her future high school would start at just after 7 a.m., a time doctors were already saying was incompatible with healthy teen sleep. I was relieved when I read that school leaders knew this research and were planning to pilot a 9 a.m. start time. But that pilot never got off the ground. My daughter and my younger kids all started high school at 7:17, and to this day high schools here still start that early, with some kids at bus stops before 5:30 a.m. Meanwhile, that 12-year-old is 28 and just had a baby of her own. Since then evidence has grown even stronger that early bell times are taking a huge toll on children's health and wellbeing. These hours have been linked to teen sleep deprivation and a laundry list of associated health, safety, and school problems, including obesity, depression, car crashes, truancy, tardiness, and substance abuse. You Can Put a Teen to Bed, But You Can't Make Her Sleep Of course, school hours aren't the only culprit. Teens, like most of us, often make sleep a low priority. But even teens with perfect habits can't get the sleep their still-growing brains and bodies need when they have to wake at dawn. Not only do many school activities run past 9 or 10 p.m., but hormo...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news