Neuroscience For Kids
Later School Start Time May Make Better Students
July 19, 2010
Would starting school 30 minutes later make better students? Researchers
in Rhode Island have published a study that suggests it might.
Dr. Judith Owens and her colleagues studied 201 high school students who had their school start time delayed from 8:00 am to 8:30 am. Before and then two months after the switch, the students completed a survey that asked about their sleep habits.
After the change to the later school start time:
- Students slept 45 minutes longer on school nights. Students slept for 7 hours, 7 minutes when school started at 8:00 am and they slept for 7 hours, 52 minutes when school started at 8:30 am.
- More students got at least 8 hours of sleep each night. When school
started at 8:00 am, only 16.4% of the students got at least 8 hours of
sleep each night; when school started at 8:30 am, 54.7% of the students
got at least 8 hours of sleep each night.
- Sleep problems decreased. After the time switch, fewer students reported 1) rarely or never getting enough sleep; 2) never being satisfied with their sleep and 3) never getting a good night's sleep.
- More students got up by themselves and did not need an alarm clock or someone else to wake them up.
- Behavioral and health problems decreased. With the later school start time, fewer students felt too tired and unmotivated to do their schoolwork, play sports or socialize; fewer students rated themselves as unhappy or depressed; fewer students were late to class because they overslept.
This experiment shows that a simple 30 minute delay
in starting school appears to benefit students' physical and emotional
health. Nevertheless, it is unclear if the later school start time
produces better student grades and test scores. Furthermore, the
researchers note that they did not have a control group in their study.
Therefore, it is possible that the changes in student sleep habits may be
related to something other than the later school start time.
If starting school later is good for high school students, why aren't more schools delaying the start of the day? Sleep researcher Dr. Kyla Walhstrom suggests one answer to this question: the time that school starts creates a strong emotional reaction within a community; changing the time that school starts could upset the rhythm of the day for families and businesses. It is also possible that altered school start times could disrupt bus schedules, sports, and afterschool student jobs.
References and more information:
- Owens, J.A., Belon, K., and Moss, P., Impact of delaying school start time on adolescent sleep, mood, and behavior, Arch. Pediatr. Adolesc. Med., 164:608-614, 2010.
- Wahlstrom, K., School start time and sleepy teens, Arch. Pediatr. Adolesc. Med., 164:676-677, 2010.
- School start time technical report, volume II
- Lack of Sleep Affects Schoolwork - Neuroscience for Kids
Copyright © 1996-2010, Eric H. Chudler, University of Washington
