It is approximately 7:20 in the morning at my high school and kids are dragging themselves into their classrooms while clinging on to their second cup of coffee.  Instead of excelling in their academics and being focused and alert, they are too busy thinking about how tired they are. While schools around the country are striving towards their goal of modeling future generations, they do not realize that by starting school so early, they are not only preventing the future generations from thriving, but also seriously endangering them.  Because of school start times, only 10% of teenagers in America are getting the recommended amount of sleep. (Sleep Center, UCLA) In getting less than the recommended eight and a half hours of sleep, schools are killing creativity, decreasing the ability to respond under pressure, and diminishing the ability to cope with stress, something inflicted upon by all schools. While schools claim that their ultimate goal is to enrich the mindset and build up creativity of teenagers, all they are really doing is preventing it. By pushing school back only one hour, students will make better decisions, get more sleep which leads to a healthier lifestyle, and receive a higher level of education.

Although schools make the assertion that they want to mold their students into responsible young adults that make good decisions, by limiting student’s sleep, a direct correlation forms in which there is an exponential increase of the amount of students that experiment with drugs and alcohol.  One of the major problems a lot of schools have to deal with is preventing  the use of illegal drugs and alcohol. My solution backed up by scientists for this problem, is sleep. Sleep deprived students are 33% more likely to use alcohol as well as more likely to experience higher levels of depression.(PMC) This is a fact that schools should really consider while making decisions about the future of their students because each and each every day, more and more students are dropping out of high school. In fact, a recent study shows that 1 out 7 high school students will drop out before their senior year due to drugs or depression.(Consumer Healthday) More major consequences from a lack of sleep include: “poor concentration, moodiness, hallucinations, and headaches.”(Better Health) Sleep deprivation in rare cases can even be fatal in the way that it causes high blood pressure and an increased risk to heart disease. Schools are tarnishing and diminishing the value of their student’s educations and at the same time, they are putting their health in danger.

Another perspective that needs to be heavily considered is that teenage sleep patterns are different to those of adults or even young children. Located in the brain of everyone, whether they are an adult or a kid, is a chemical called Melatonin. Melatonin is what causes sleepiness and is responsible for alerting the brain when a body needs rest in order to properly function. Scientists say that Melatonin is released from the brain at 11 pm and can stay active till 8 am.(BBC) This is due to teenagers reaching a period in life when they are constantly changing.  Along with this idea, it is important to note that most high schools around the country start at an average time of 7:30 AM.(NESD) Theoretically, if students go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 5:45- 6, they are missing out on a good two and a half hours of good sleep they can get. Doctors that specialize in examining sleep report that by losing two hours of sleep, students are missing out on almost an entire sleep cycle, more professionally known as a rem cycle. This evokes 2 major problems.  First, by losing an entire cycle of sleep during the time period of hormonal change damages the developmental process and can prohibit teenagers from growing in multiple aspects of life. This also is holding them back from reaching their full potential. Number two is that during a student’s first hour class, they are tired because their body and hormones are telling them that they should still be sleeping, which means they aren’t really focusing. In addition to these two problems, tired students have “reduced short-term memory and learning ability, negative mood, inconsistent performance, poor productivity and loss of some forms of behavioral control.”(Adolescent Sleep Needs and Patterns) This brings up the issue that students already don’t want to be in school, so schools need to take advantage of the time that they have the students. However, with the students not focusing at their entirety, and not as alert as they should be, schools around the country are really not taking advantage.

To illustrate the importance of sleep on everyday life, it is important to note that out of many factors and variables, sleep plays one of the biggest roles in education. In today’s day and age, knowledge is power. Because of this, education should be any and every student’s top priority. Getting the right education can set up a student for the rest of his or her life. This is why it is so alarming to many sleep experts and even many educators why schools would ever want to take sleep away from teenagers. When tested on performance, people with less than six and a half hours of sleep were significantly less alert and perceptive than those with the full recommended amount.(Sleep Education) On the other hand, many educators or schools would argue that  students are the only ones that can control when they go to bed and if they used their time wisely, they would not be in the position to go to bed so late. Other people even argue that students should just drink coffee when they are tired. Yet, scientists say by schools taking away their sleep in the most important phase of their lives, they are truly only harming them. Sleep doctors say that on average, teenagers  need between 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep per night to concentrate at their highest level.(Sleep Foundation) Though , in a recent sleep study, results show that only 10% of high school teens are getting the recommended amount of sleep.  The same study also showed that 46% of students have trouble staying awake during school, along with the incapability to concentrate.(Wysong) Because of this, students are not performing at their highest potential and are being held back from reaching their full potential. Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom from the University of Minnesota, conducted a study and concluded that students are much more likely to recall past information while having had a full night sleep then if not having had those 8-9 hours. Although it may appear differently, when sleep deprived students are being taught information, they will forget almost everything they learn instead of absorbing it like they should be.

By pushing school back by at least one hour, students will perform better academically, be healthier, and make better decisions. 1 out of every 7 teenagers drop out of high school. Teenagers that don’t get enough sleep are 20% more likely to get in a car crash and die. Sleep deprivation physically and mentally tears teenagers apart each and every day. Schools are hurting their students by taking away their sleep. Now is the time to end this.