My first alarm goes off at 6:30 and I angrily roll over and hit snooze about 6 times before I finally get out of bed at 7 am. Which is later than most students. I then quickly shower, pack my bag, and am out the door by 7:30 am. I don't end up having time for breakfast, or a talk with my parents. I’ve tried going to bed early. Turn off all lights and electronics. I just end up laying in the dark for hours. Nothing seems to work to fall asleep sooner. This just makes it harder to get up because I haven't even slept very long by the time that alarm goes off. That's why I think school start times should be later. I know I’m not the only kid that struggles with getting up to those early alarms every morning. Many kids don’t fall asleep until 11 pm or later. Leaving us to get barely 7 hours of sleep. There have been many studies showing why we need later start times and the benefits of the later start time. Such as the physical benefits and mental benefits.  I will also go over the opposing view of why we shouldn’t. 

The physical benefits of a later start time can be seen clearly in most studies. In the article “The Science Behind Changing School Start Times.” Published by the National Jewish Health For Kids, in January of 2021 by the author Lisa J. Meltzer. They outline some key points in their article. On average kids are supposed to get 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep every night. That's what we are supposed to get, but almost 75% of kids get less than 7 hours of sleep. Now there are many factors to this but school start times are a big contributor. It's been proven that during puberty, the release of melatonin is delayed. The main hormone that makes people sleepy. That's delayed on average about 2 hours in teens. Making it almost impossible to fall asleep early. Then we are forced to get up earlier too. Late nights and early mornings don't mix well, especially during a key developing time for all kids. So the benefits of moving start times to the suggested no earlier than 8:30 am are the kids could get more than 8 hours of sleep, better grades, higher graduation rates, reduced tardiness, and fewer crashes in teens that drive. These are just some of the benefits. Now I’ll talk about the mental part and benefits. 

The mental benefits are even more important than the physical. While Teens need 8.5 hours of sleep at the minimum, they are falling well short of that amount by about an hour on average. A later school start time could do a lot for teens' mental health and grades. In the article “Changes in School Start Time have a Significant Effect on the Amount of Sleep and Reported Grade Point Average of Students.” Published by the Minnesota Youth Development Research Group. Published on April 10, 2021, by the authors Julio Caesar, Rik Lamm, Michael C. Rodriguez, and David J. Heistad. This article goes over many studies and summarizes what they concluded. In one of the studies, a later start time proved to show lower daily depression/ anxiety symptoms. Less students fell asleep in class. Teens were more awake for their morning classes and more involved in school throughout the day. In another study that looked at four schools. The number of kids that reached the recommended amount of sleep increased by 16%. This shows that a later start time does indeed help teens reach the recommended amount of sleep. Now some people might argue that the benefits aren’t enough to change the start time, bus routes and time. So I’m going to go over some arguments that have been made.

The opposing point of view comes from all people. Teachers, parents, and students. First teachers,  now some teachers will say they don't want a later start time because then they have to be here longer. This is true but they also get more sleep if they want it, more time in the morning to prepare for classes, and they only have to stay the amount of time it pushes back. So probably about 30 minutes for my school. Now students have the same argument. They don't want to be here later as well as extra activities such as sports or clubs then have to start later as well. Especially with sports, some already end at times like 9 pm. We would be pushing them back or taking kids out of class to go to them. I still think it is worth it considering all the benefits of a later start time. Parents also have the same argument about sports and activities. They don’t want their kids out late. This is understandable but the kids would be doing better in school and feeling better throughout the day if the later start time did happen.  Now there are other arguments like having to change the bus routes and times. I feel like that's not that much work when we put in perspective the benefits. So that's why I think school should start later. 

I think schools need to start later considering all the benefits. The mental and physical benefits are super noticeable in every study. Now there are some opposing arguments on why not too. In my mind, there is nothing that should stop us from improving teens' overall health. It improves their grades and graduation rates. They show up to school more and it even reduces car crashes among teens that drive. The evidence is here and we should act upon it. We have sat back while teens get not even close to enough sleep to be healthy. We can change that just by pushing school start times back 30 minutes to an hour. I definitely wouldn't mind starting a little later. Getting an extra 20-30 minutes of sleep a night. Pushing back that alarm back 30 minutes would improve my morning and many others.