Terra Ziporyn Snider of Severna Park, Maryland, still remembers how difficult it was for her son to wake up at 7:17 a.m. for his first class in high school. Sometimes she would turn on the shower, go back to bed, wait for the water to warm up, and then fall back asleep. One morning, he went out the door but didn't get far. He backed into the garage door because he forgot to open the car.
That was in 2012. The morning struggles of her children's high school years led Ziporyn Snider to co-found the national nonprofit Start School Later at about the same time, but school is only now scheduled to move to 8:30. Start times will take effect this fall.
![The book cover of The Sleep Deprived Teen shows a picture of a child lying in bed under a starry night sky.](https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/085867POhQyFkQyMG9-RtgCfxfc=/665x1028/media/img/posts/2022/06/9781642507911_FC/original.jpg)
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has called for later school start times since 2014, recommends that middle and high schools begin no earlier than 8:30 a.m. However, until recently there was a patchwork approach to meeting this recommendation. The result: Many districts, cities and counties have chosen to make changes, but most middle and high schools still start too early. These start times make it nearly impossible for teens to get the recommended 8 to 10 hours of sleep for their health and well-being, as their body clocks tend to shift later as they begin puberty.
This is about to change in California. The first-in-the-nation law takes effect July 1, requiring the state's public high schools to start at 8:30 a.m. and middle schools to start at 8:30 a.m. Similar bills are being considered in New York and New Jersey.
Places that have already delayed school start times have repeatedly seen positive results. When Seattle's public school district changed its start time from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. in 2016, students got an average of 34 extra minutes of sleep per night as a result. And in Cherry Creek, a Denver-area suburb, high school students slept about 45 minutes longer on average, an improvement that lasted two years after the change.
Despite these success stories across the United States, national youth sleep statistics remain dismal. In 2007, when the CDC first started asking about teens' sleep in the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, only 31% of high school students reported getting at least eight hours of sleep on school nights. In 2019, that percentage fell to 22%.
8 hours is actually minimum The amount they need.
Sleep deprivation in adolescents affects grades, attendance, and graduation rates. This increases the risk of injury in youth athletes and causes more drowsy driving accidents. And this worsens mental health problems, including anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Specifically, data released by the CDC in April found that 44% of high school students reported feeling “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” in the past year, and 20% said they had seriously considered suicide.
Circadian rhythm changes that occur during puberty are an important consideration. But social factors also play a role in chronic sleep deprivation in teens. Teens are often overloaded, time-poor, and asked to wake up too early for school. Most teenagers should still be sleeping well Get past the alarm clock in the morning to get the recommended amount of sleep: Teens who need to wake up at 6 a.m. should go to bed between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. each night, which goes against reality because of their bodies. Above all, the need for a clock and homework.
Improving your situation starts with valuing your sleep. There are changes parents can make to make sleep a priority, including encouraging it at home and in their teens' schedules and setting family rules around technology use. For example, charging all devices in a central location rather than the bedroom can help reduce late-night use.
However, school schedules limit what families can do. School start times as opposed to internal biological clocks ~can do A change has been made to help teens get more sleep. Since the 2014 AAP recommendations, the consensus continues to grow that later start times are better for adolescents.
California's new law means most students in public high schools and middle schools in the nation's most populous state – about 3 million – will now have healthy start times. This is progress. Also promising are schools that delayed remote learning start times during the pandemic and maintained that schedule after returning to in-person classes.
While delaying start times is an essential step, there is more work to be done to help teens get the rest they need. On a broader level, we need to take steps to address the pressure cooker environments teenagers face and lower their stress levels. This may mean reevaluating all your commitments and even scaling back on them to ensure you get enough sleep. In the process of trying to meet all the expectations placed on them, our teens are getting less sleep, which is harming their well-being.
This article has been partially adapted from the book by Lisa L. Lewis. sleep deprived teenager.
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