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Delaying school start times in the UK is unlikely to reduce sleep deprivation in teenagers, research from the University of Surrey and Harvard Medical School has found. The research, conducted in collaboration between mathematicians and sleep scientists, predicts that turning down the lights in the evening would be much more effective at tackling sleep deprivation.

Teenagers like to sleep late and struggle to get up in time to go to school. The commonly accepted explanation for this is that adolescents' biological brain clocks are delayed. It has been suggested that to remedy this, school start times should be delayed for older teenagers so that they are again in tune with their biological clock.

The study, which is published today in Scientific Reports, used a mathematical model that takes into account whether people are naturally more of a morning or evening person, the impact of natural and artificial light on the body clock and the typical time of an alarm clock, to predict the effects of delaying school start times.

The mathematical model showed that delaying school start times in the UK would not help reduce sleep deprivation. Just as when clocks go back in the autumn, most teenagers' body clocks would drift even later in response to the later start time, and in a matter of weeks they would find it just as hard to get out of bed. The results did, however, lend some support to delaying school start in the US, where many schools start as early as 7am.

The mathematical explanation has its roots in the work of the 17th century Dutch mathematician Huygens. He saw that clocks can synchronise, but it depends on both the clocks and how they influence each other. From research over the last few decades we know that body clocks typically run a little slow, so they need to be regularly 'corrected' if they are to remain in sync with the 24-hour day. Historically, this correcting signal came from our interaction with the environmental light/dark 'clock'.

The mathematical model shows that the problem for adolescents is that their light consumption behaviour interferes with the natural interaction with the environmental clock -- getting up late in the morning results in adolescents keeping the lights on until later at night. Having the lights on late delays the biological clock, making it even harder to get up in the morning. The mathematics also suggests that the biological clocks of adolescents are particularly sensitive to the effects of light consumption.

The model suggests that an alternative remedy to moving school start times in the UK is exposure to bright light during the day, turning the lights down in the evening and off at night. For very early start times, as in some US regions, any benefit gained from delaying school start times could be lost unless it is coupled with strict limits on the amount of evening artificial light consumption.

Lead author Dr Anne Skeldon said: "The power of the mathematics is that we are able to use existing knowledge about how light interacts with the biological clock to make predictions about different interventions to help reduce 'social jetlag'.

"It highlights that adolescents are not 'programmed' to wake up late and that by increasing exposure to bright light during the day, turning lights down in the evening and off at night should enable most to get up in time for work or school without too much effort and without changing school timetables."

Co-author Dr Andrew Phillips said: "The most interesting part of this analysis for me was the counter-intuitive finding that the most extreme evening types are predicted to derive the least benefit from a delay in school start times, because they tend to use evening artificial light for a longer interval of time.

"For evening types, it is critical to keep evening light levels low to derive any of the potential benefits of a delay in morning alarm times, otherwise their bed time is very prone to shifting later. Understanding these individual differences, and how they are influenced by light consumption, is necessary to maximize the effects of any policy change."

Co-author Prof Derk-Jan Dijk said: "Just as mathematical models are used to predict climate change, they can now be used to predict how changing our light environment will influence our biological rhythms.

"It shows that modern lifestyles make it hard for body clocks to stay on 24 hours, which shifts our rhythm of sleepiness and alertness to later times -- meaning we are sleepy until late in the morning and remain alert until later in the evening.

"As a result, during the working week our alarm clocks go off before the body clock naturally wakes us up. We then get insufficient sleep during the week and compensate for it during the weekend. Such patterns of insufficient and irregular sleep have been associated with various health problems and have been termed 'social jet lag'."

The mathematical understanding of biological clocks suggests that adolescents are particularly sensitive to the effects of light consumption. However, the model can be applied to other age-groups as well. It can be used to design new interventions not only for sleepy teenagers but also for adults who suffer from delayed sleep phase disorders or people who are not synchronised to the 24-hour day at all.

The research draws attention to light, light consumption and darkness as important environmental and behavioural factors influencing health. This has implications for how we design the light environment at work and at home in our modern light-polluted societies.

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sleep disorder research; insomnia research; teen health; staying healthy; sleep disorders; insomnia; k-12 education; child development

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Mathematicians predict delaying school start times won't help sleep deprived teenagers

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Insufficient sleep during the week, and attempts to catch up at the weekend lead to 'social jet lag', finds a new study. Delaying school start times in the UK is unlikely to reduce sleep deprivation in teenagers, the research has found.

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There is no doubt that starting school later for Nanyang Girls' High School has helped the pupils to concentrate better but the Government should not rush into extending this to all schools. ( No downside to starting school late; July 19).

Anecdotally, a higher proportion of Nanyang Girls' High students are chauffeured to school than in other schools. A later start time would not affect them much.

But for those taking public transport, a later start time would inconvenience both students and working adults as they would all be travelling at about the same time in the mornings, which would result in packed buses and trains.

Reports about students having to wake up as early as 5am to cross the border from Johor without compromising their academic performance are also not uncommon.

Ultimately, self-discipline is the key to attentiveness in class, which is also essential when one becomes a working adult.
Lim Chee Khiam

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Starting school late for all not necessary

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There is no doubt that starting school later for Nanyang Girls' High School has helped the pupils to concentrate better but the Government should not rush into extending this to all schools. (No downside to starting school late; July 19).. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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The Ministry of Education should consider pushing school start times to 8.30am or 9am (" Don't snooze on sleep issue"; May 16).

There is little reason for schools to start at 7.30am every day when almost all schools have gone single session.

Schools that have implemented later start times, such as Nanyang Junior College and Hwa Chong Institution (every Friday), have seen very positive results.

Apart from the obvious long-term health issues, having a later start time allows parents to spend more time with their children at night after work, thus improving family ties.

I hope the authorities can look into this matter.
Edmund Augustine Loh Siew Kuan

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The Ministry of Education should consider pushing school start times to 8.30am or 9am (" Don't snooze on sleep issue"; May 16). There is little reason for schools to start at 7.30am every day when almost all schools have gone single session.

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My school has implemented the system of starting school late to allow students to get more sleep.

After about six months of this late start, I must say that I see no cons to this system, and am surprised that other schools are not keen to try it.

Having extra sleep is crucial to enable students to perform better during the day.

I am more awake in class and able to concentrate better. I can last longer before feeling tired.

Sometimes, I do find myself using the late start as an excuse to go to bed late or watch an extra hour of TV.

It is up to students to go to bed at their usual time and take advantage of the scheme to get an extra hour of sleep.

The idea of starting school late should not be brushed aside just because a group of students misuse it.
Kaitlyn Hong Hee Ying, 16, Secondary 4 student

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My school has implemented the system of starting school late to allow students to get more sleep. After about six months of this late start, I must say that I see no cons to this system, and am surprised that other schools are not keen to try it.

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Many high school-age children across the United States now find themselves waking up much earlier than they'd prefer as they return to school. They set their alarms, and their parents force them out of bed in the morning, convinced this is a necessary part of youth and good preparation for the rest of their lives.

It's not. It's arbitrary, forced on them against their nature, and a poor economic decision as well.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends that teenagers get between nine and 10 hours of sleep. Most in the US don't. It's not their fault.

My oldest child, Jacob, is in 10th grade. He spends a fair amount of time each evening doing homework. Most nights he's asleep by 10 or 10.30. His school bus picks him up at 6.40am. Nine hours of sleep is a pipe dream, let alone 10.

There's an argument to be made for cutting back on his activities or making him go to bed earlier. But it's not the activities that stop them from getting enough sleep - it's the school start times. More than 90 per cent of high schools and over 80 per cent of middle schools start before 8.30am.

A systematic review published a year ago examined how school start delays affect students' sleep and other outcomes. Six studies showed that delaying the start of school from 25 to 60 minutes corresponded with increased sleep time of 25 to 77 minutes per week night. In other words, when students were allowed to sleep later in the morning, they still went to bed at the same time, and got more sleep.

More sleep has been shown to lead to higher academic achievement. They found that the added academic benefit of later start times would be equivalent to about two extra months of schooling... Thus, the benefits outweighed the costs.

There are costs to pushing back the start times of schools. Our local school system uses the same buses for elementary, middle and high school. Not wanting to start elementary school too early, it starts high school earlier to save money on transportation. Other costs to delaying start times come after school, when later school end times result in later after-school activities. These can interfere with parents' work schedules and run into evening hours, when it gets dark and additional lighting might be necessary.

A Brookings Institution policy brief investigated the trade-offs between costs and benefits of pushing back the start times of high school in 2011. It estimated that increased transportation costs would most likely be US$150 (S$202) per student per year. More sleep has been shown to lead to higher academic achievement. They found that the added academic benefit of later start times would be equivalent to about two extra months of schooling, which would add about US$17,500 to a student's earnings over the course of a lifetime. Thus, the benefits outweighed the costs.

A recent analysis by the Rand Corp goes much further. It conducted analyses to determine the economic implication of a universal shift of middle and high school start times to 8.30am at the earliest. It examined each state individually, because moving to 8.30 would be a bigger change for some. It also looked at changes year by year to see how costs and benefits accrued over time. It looked at downstream effects, like car accidents. And it considered multiplier effects, as changes to the lives of students might affect others over time.

The study found that delaying school start times to 8.30 or later would contribute US$83 billion to the economy within a decade. The gains were seen through decreased car crash mortality and increased student lifetime earnings.

Since it would take at least a year for students affected by changes in start times to enter the labour market, there would be no gains in the first year. Costs, however, would accrue immediately. These included about US$150 per student per year in transport costs and US$110,000 per school costs in infrastructure upgrades. Even so, by the second year, the benefits outweighed the costs. By 10 years, the benefits were almost double the costs; by 15 years, they were almost triple.

But even in a model where the per-student, per-year cost was raised to US$500, which would compensate parents for delays, and where the per-school cost was increased to US$330,000, the economic benefits to society would still outweigh costs in the long run.

Also, it's important to understand that these benefits may be underestimated. The study modelled only outcomes for which there was empirical data from sleep duration, such as car crashes and academic performance. It did not model other real, but quantifiably unknown, benefits, like improvements in rates of depression, suicide and obesity, or the overall effects on health.

Some schools are beginning to take this seriously, but not enough.

When it comes to start times, the growing evidence shows that forcing adolescents to get up so early isn't just a bad health decision; it's a bad economic one too.

NYTIMES

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Many high school-age children across the United States now find themselves waking up much earlier than they'd prefer as they return to school. They set their alarms, and their parents force them out of bed in the morning, convinced this is a necessary part of youth and good preparation for the rest of their lives..

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Ms Priscilla Poh Beng Hoon ( Good sleep routine ensures children's body clocks are set; March 3) and Mr Seah Yam Meng ( Push back start time of schools for health's sake; ST Online, Feb 24) are both right to state that sleep is important for health, cognition and well-being, and to offer support for improving students' sleep.

I acknowledge that changing the start time for all schools may be challenging, due to transport arrangements.

Hence, I suggest confining this change to secondary schools.

Students at this age may be more suited for ride-sharing or public transport schemes.

My group also recently gathered our own data on students' sleep patterns and found that there is a systematic decrease in sleep duration in mid-secondary school.

This is a result of a biological shift in preferred sleep time to later in the night.

Advising older teens to go to bed earlier, to achieve more sleep, is unlikely to be effective on its own.

My colleague, Dr Joshua Gooley, also found that students who attend secondary schools here that start later get more sleep on school nights.

Hence, changing the start time for secondary schools could benefit the age window where sleeping later is biologically driven, and could encourage further adjustment to sleep schedules.
Michael W. L. Chee (Dr)

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Start secondary school later in line with teens' sleep patterns

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Ms Priscilla Poh Beng Hoon (Good sleep routine ensures children's body clocks are set; March 3) and Mr Seah Yam Meng (Push back start time of schools for health's sake; ST Online, Feb 24) are both right to state that sleep is important for health, cognition and well-being, and to offer support for improving students' sleep..

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If schools have a snack break for pupils between 9am and 10am, then they could have a longer, staggered recess from 11am (" Late lunches not healthy for schoolkids" by Ms Irene Louis; Jan 21).

The longer recess time will give children more time to eat a heavier meal, which will sustain them for their journey home for a late lunch, whether it is at 2pm or 3pm.

When scheduling their recess breaks, schools should consider the time needed for the pupils to pack up, get to the canteen, queue up, eat, and get back to the classroom.

There should be a long enough recess so children can enjoy their food and not eat too fast, so they can digest the food better.

Lower-primary pupils also take a longer time to eat, and need time to socialise with others and learn to be independent.

As for schools' start time, I disagree with the suggestion that schools start at 9am, as this would clash with many parents' work schedules. Parents would then not be able to drive their children to school before getting to the office.

This will be a problem especially for parents of young children who need supervision while getting ready for school in the morning.

Pupils who participate in co-curricular activities (CCAs) usually stay for several hours after school. If schools were to start at a later time, then the CCAs would also end later, and pupils would have less time to finish their homework, engage in social activities, and sleep.

Starting school later will also affect the time available for after-school tuition sessions.

Francis Cheng

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Adjust recess time, but don't start school later

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Letters on the Web News -If schools have a snack break for pupils between 9am and 10am, then they could have a longer, staggered recess from 11am ("Late lunches not healthy for schoolkids" by Ms Irene Louis; Jan 21).. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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They are more energised and focused throughout the day, and school didn't even have to end later, thanks to careful planning. But how sustainable is this?

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SINGAPORE: For almost a year now, Nanyang Girls High (NYGH) students have been starting school at 8.15am - a good 45 minutes later than most secondary schools.

And the results have been telling.

The school in Bukit Timah has been taking part in ground-breaking sleep studies conducted by Duke-NUS Medical School researchers - whose studies have shown that 80 per cent of teens here don't get enough sleep, which affects their health, grades and cognitive abilities.

It was what the teachers of NYGH had been suspecting all along.

Mrs Ho-Sam Choon Juen, NYGH dean of student systems and info management, said: "For a long time, we'd known that our girls were not sleeping enough because of their academic and extra-curricular demands.

"Some of the teachers' observations were that they (the students) looked tired and sleepy in class."

And so, in the second semester of 2016, the school delayed its start time so that students could get proper sleep - tweaking how it ran its curriculum so that they wouldn't have to end school later.

There is scientific reasoning behind letting teens sleep in later, according to principal investigator Professor Michael Chee.

GIRLS MORE ENERGISED FOR THE DAY
"Your biological clock shifts when you go into your teen years, you start having a preferred sleep time that's about one hour later. And this tends to shift back when you reach young adulthood," said Prof Chee, who is also director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke-NUS.

So it's the teen years that are very critical. And this is why we believe that if we start school later, it should be primarily directed at secondary schools.

WATCH: How the school did it (4:31)
And at Nanyang Girls, 45 minutes has made all the difference, for the students and teachers.

NYGH chemistry teacher Mr Muhammad Imran has noticed a distinct change in the students. The school environment has also become more vibrant in the morning.

"I think that's because everyone is already more energetic when school starts," he said, noting that there were fewer sleepyheads in class.

"The girls might not be necessarily excited about the lesson but at least they're excited even before the lesson starts - and that makes it a lot easier for everyone, not just the teachers but for students to be more comfortable," Mr Imran added.

Alexandra Egan, 16, thinks an extra half-hour to sleep has been key to getting her through the school day a lot better. Waking up early used to make her feel lethargic throughout the day. Once, she said:

I was in the toilet and I fell asleep. I fell down and hurt myself.

"At the end of the day I would find myself losing focus and not really catching what the teacher was saying. But now, for my last lesson, I'll still be paying attention," Alexandra said, adding she also has energy left over for her CCA after classes.

This reaffirms one study by Prof Chee on how teenagers' cognitive abilities and mood are affected by sleep. He had 60 students take part in an experiment at the Nanyang Girls Boarding School to document the effects of multiple nights of sleep restriction.

"What we've been trying to do in these studies is, firstly, to show that even among very high performing students, sleep restriction to five hours in bed over multiple nights - simulating a school week - can degrade performance.
PLANNING SO THAT SCHOOL DOESN'T END LATER
"There are cumulative declines in your vigilance, speed of processing, executive function - all of which are fundamental cognitive processes around which all other bits of cognition are built," said Prof Chee.

For Vivien Tan, 16, just knowing the extra 45 minutes is there has led to much better-quality sleep. "Previously I'd go to sleep worrying about my assignments the next day," she said.

"Now I know that I can wake up with a certain amount of time to study before school starts. It has allowed me to relax at night, so I have really good, deep sleep."

The case for schools in Singapore to start later has surfaced regularly over the years.

But the arguments against it have always included how this would clash with the work schedules of parents, who would be late getting to the office after sending their children to school. Some also worry if their kids would end school later, while others are concerned if there would be a cut in curriculum time.

Indeed, teacher Mr Imran was concerned about whether his students would be stuck in traffic jams with the office-bound crowd.

My second thought was if we start later, does that mean we're going to end later and everything is just going to be pushed back - and the cycle continues?

"So I would say that initially my thoughts weren't great. Honestly, I wasn't enthusiastic about this," he admitted.

But NYGH decided to take the bold step anyway. As Mrs Ho-Sam said: "It's really about the students' well-being."

To assuage the concerns of the different groups, the school re-designed the timetable structure, re-distributed the curriculum hours, staggered the recess timing, and changed the assembly to a fortnightly session.

It took about half a year of planning before they rolled out the initiative in mid-2016.
FOR SOME PARENTS, MORE TIME FOR BONDING
Mrs Ho-Sam said: "We made sure that we did not compromise the curriculum hours for each subject, and that the teachers still have sufficient interaction time with the girls during lessons.

It is about effective and clever use of time as well. We managed to start school later by 45 minutes each day without ending the afternoon later for the girls.

This is important, because the girls still have third-language classes, tuition or CCAs to attend after school.

Before the school rolled out this initiative, they engaged parents. Some were concerned because they had other children attending schools that started at the regular time.

These parents were assured that if they needed to continue sending their daughters to school at 7.30am, there would be teachers around for their security. Said Mrs Ho-Sam: "The teachers are not coming later. Only the students report in later. Even the canteen operates at the same time as well."

She added that the students who come early "can use the time do their work, or even just chill. They feel that the school hours are not as rushed as before".

It also works out well for the teachers, who can hold their daily meetings in the mornings instead of during recess time which left them with very little break time, Mrs Ho-Sam noted.

Parent Mr Chng Hock Huat was initially sceptical about the school's move. Already, the father of five was making multiple trips in the morning to send his kids to school, and he was worried about making huge changes to his schedule.

"But then I remembered how during our school days, if I was allowed to snooze for another 10 minutes, it was really like paradise. So why deprive my daughter of that?" he said.

Mr Chng said the later start time has resulted in him sharing a closer relationship with his daughter. "Now we have the privilege of having a nice breakfast at our favourite wanton noodle stall at least once a week (before school). My wife and I can chat with our teenage girl. So it's really wonderful," he said.
BUT CAN THIS BE SUSTAINED?
While he acknowledges that it poses some logistical challenges for working parents, it is great that they are given that option.

There will be parents concerned that with one hour less (of curriculum time), something must give. I think we should remind ourselves, school is not a factory. It's all about doing more with less.

For instance, he said, "the kids can always come earlier to have their discussion group. The notion of giving them this discretionary time is to allow them to make full use of it."

The catch? Some students are now making use of this extra time to catch up on their work or watch their favourite Youtube shows, said Alexandra.

So are they actually getting more sleep?

Prof Chee's team tracked about 400 students with time logs and actigraph watches, and surveyed around 100 parents and 60 teachers. They found that the self-reported increase in sleep duration was, on average, around 20 minutes.

"This is on par with studies elsewhere - you get about 50 per cent yield on the gain in sleep," said Prof Chee.
SHOULD ALL SCHOOLS START LATER?
Whether even this increase in sleep can be sustained is a key question. "Just like with a diet or exercise programme, there's a honeymoon period that lasts about a year - then after that, you find that unless the person has a substantial change in behaviour that's internally motivated, you see recidivism into prior behaviour."

That's why sleep education is important, he said - as well as the time-use logs, so that students with irregular sleep patterns can eventually be helped with counselling and customised advice.

"Nothing works like success," said Prof Chee. "If the students, parents and teachers see for themselves the benefits of improving sleep, then you know, we hope that several will come out and serve as advocates or role models for better sleep."

This is why Prof Chee thinks that it can become possible to roll out this start-late approach to all schools across Singapore.

"I think it's going to take time but I am optimistic. (Singaporeans) will adjust to what's good for them, and when they see how well the school does, they will want to follow," he said.

When contacted, the Ministry of Education said that most schools start their school day at around 7.30am or later. It said that the amount of sleep that students get each night is not just dependent on their waking time but also on their sleeping habits and routine.

The ministry added: "Schools take into consideration their parents' feedback, transport provisions and traffic situation around their schools to determine their start time.

"Schools are also mindful that starting schools later has an impact on schools' dismissal time, with lessons continuing during the hotter part of the afternoon."

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A big difference in students, after Nanyang Girls starts school later at 8.15am

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They are more energised and focused throughout the day, and school didn't even have to end later, thanks to careful planning. But how sustainable is this? (Updated: ) Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via E-Mail SINGAPORE: For almost a year now, Nanyang Girls High (NYGH) students have been starting school at 8.15am - a good 45 minutes later than most secondary schools.

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SINGAPORE: A recent Channel NewsAsia report on Nanyang Girls' High (NYGH) students starting school at 8.15am - about 45 minutes later than most secondary schools - has generated a fair bit of debate online and off.

A CNA Insider video report on the initiative has chalked up more than half a million views and more than 300 comments.
DON'T "CLASH" WITH THE WORKING CROWD
Many saw the report as a wake-up call for other schools to follow suit. Others, however, cautioned against supporting the move with their eyes closed.

For those who are against a later start to the day for students, a common thread of argument was that it would add to the morning rush hour woes.

"How we have managed to keep things more or less under control is to effectively have two 'shifts'. First the kids go to school and then office worker rush begins," said Ben Leong on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

The associate professor at the National University of Singapore's School of Computing added: "The school bus companies also benefit because they can first ferry the kids to school and then they can carry the workers.

"I hope the rest of the schools don't follow NYGH's example and cause the morning rush hour to be a bigger disaster than it currently is."

His views were shared by several people who commented on Channel NewsAsia's Facebook pages.

"Before 8.30am is preferred so as not to clash with work traffic/bus congestions," said Mary Mah. Another reader, David Ho, wrote: "Have you taken an MRT during 8am? Why add another group of students to the overloaded train. The main reason is to spread out the load."
"IF ONE SCHOOL CAN DO IT, SO CAN ALL"

Facebook user Luqman Hakin agreed that having students start at 8.15am might put more burden on the public transport system during peak hours. He suggested that schools start even later - at 9.30am or 10am - to "stagger travelling times and give our children more rest".

On the other side of the fence, a good number of people suggested that primary schools, too, follow in the footsteps of Nanyang Girls' High, with parents and students alike seeing the benefits to the childrens' well-being.

There were a few people who pointed out that the "unearthly" start time of 7.30am for primary schools was the "legacy" of the double-session timetable that most schools had. The recommendation for all primary schools to switch to a single morning session was made in 2009 by the Primary Education Review and Implementation (PERI) committee.

Among the many who praised Nanyang's decision to start school later, Facebook user Adam Reutens-Tan described it as a "very bold initiative" and "wonderful example of thinking out of the box and challenging the status quo that has clearly reaped positive results."

"If one school can do it, so can all," said another.

In the case of Nanyang, the school had looked into how it ran its curriculum so that students wouldn't have to end school later.

For instance, the school re-designed the timetable structure, re-distributed the curriculum hours, staggered the recess timing, and changed the assembly to a fortnightly session.

CALL FOR MORE "HOLISTIC" EDUCATION SYSTEM
It took about half a year of planning before they rolled out the initiative in mid-2016.

This has reaped results, according to the school, which noticed a distinct change in the students' behaviour and "fewer sleepyheads in class".

There were others who blamed the students' lack of sleep on the education system and how they are being made to take part in too many activities.

"Our teens are losing sleep due to the increasing long hours in school and extra curricular activities," said Bernice Wee, adding that the education system in Singapore has to "change and adapt to be more holistic and less focused on classroom learning."

Agreeing, Madhavi Tewari said: "Some policies/practices are causing unnecessary stress in the children. They are not getting enough sleep which is affecting their health."

Ultimately, a number of people said it's how students use the extra time that matters. "I think it's a matter of just getting the children to sleep earlier instead of playing games or on the phones," Facebook user Danny Yong wrote.

"Think the teenagers should be disciplined to go to bed early to have enough sleep," said Nancy Chan.

And here's one suggestion by Allan Tan: "Alternatively if needed, students can be given sleep breaks."

More comments here:

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Should schools start later like Nanyang Girls' High?

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SINGAPORE: A recent Channel NewsAsia report on Nanyang Girls' High (NYGH) students starting school at 8.15am - about 45 minutes later than most secondary schools - has generated a fair bit of debate online and off. A CNA Insider video report on the initiative has chalked up more than half a million views and more than 300 comments.

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Many attempts have been made to switch school start times to later hours. High schools in the U.S. generally start at 8 a.m. if not earlier. Considering commute and morning preparations, students are rising long before dawn to spend six to eight hours of dealing with academic and other school activities. The National Sleep Foundation recommends at least nine hours of sleep for teens, but they get much less than that because they are required to wake up early on school days.

Advantages of Later Start Times

1. Teenagers need at least 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep based on their biological clocks.

Sleep deprivation affects physical and mental performance because the body's peak ability depends on its circadian rhythm. Several studies show that high school students are among the most sleep-deprived groups due to a combination of academic workload, sports, extra-curricular activities and starting their day too early. A study conducted jointly by Harvard and Oxford found recommended that school districts adjust schedules to match the biological wake-up times of each age group. At 16, this is around 10 a.m.; at 18, 11 a.m. is the optimum wake-up time.

2. Schools with later start times showed significant improvements in school performance.

School districts that experimented with later start times found that students coped with academic workloads much better. A study that included 9,000 high school students conducted by the University of Minnesota found that grades, test scores and overall performance in core subjects advanced significantly when school start times were switched to later hours.

3. Later start times reduced tardiness, truancy and dropout rates.

The same study cited above also found that starting the school day at a later time improved school attendance. When students slept adequately, they were less sluggish in the morning and more enthusiastic about going to school.

4. Later start times enhanced all-day focus, improved mood and boosted sports performance.

Getting adequate sleep and adjusting school schedules to coincide with the natural sleep patterns of teens improved mood and attitude. Students were less likely to report depressive conditions. Physical performance in sports was boosted when students had enough sleep and sleep schedules coincided with biological sleep patterns.

5. Starting school later gave students time to eat a healthy breakfast.

Given reasonable bell times, students can have the time to sit down for breakfast. This means having healthier breakfast choices than prepackaged foods developed for on- the-go eating.

Recommended Reading: Do Increased Teacher Salaries Mean More Learning? (Infographic)

Disadvantages of Starting Late

1. School districts will face administrative and operational pressures.

School scheduling is a delicate balance of resource allocation. Administrators deploy staggered school start times to allocate limited resources and to operate efficiently within their budgets. Adjusting bell times for high school students means that buses can't be rotated for different pick-up schedules. Overcrowded schools cannot stagger bell times to accommodate more classes to meet class size limits.

2. It becomes difficult to schedule sports practice and extra-curricular activities.

It is difficult to squeeze academic schedules, sports events and extra-curricular activities into available daytime hours if schools started later .

3. A late start time will disrupt parents' schedules.

In households where adults work traditional hours, adjusting the first bell schedule to the recommended 10 a.m. start time will disrupt the household's schedule. Students who have no bus service may have problems getting to and from school.

4. Starting later in the day will affect time available for after-school tutoring.
Students who receive extra services such as one-on-one tutoring and other after-school support may find limited resources as tutors and volunteers may not have the ability to adjust their schedules.

5. Students and their families are already conditioned for early bell.

After several years of being in the school system, family schedules have been set up to revolve around school schedules. Making a major switch to later start times may pose a challenge for working parents who would have to deal with additional costs of before and after-school care and transportation.

Adjusting school schedules is a controversial issue because there are various considerations, all legitimate, that come into play. School districts that have experimented with adjusted schedules have found beneficial effects for students. However, making a massive change may be challenging in the face of limited school budgets and resources.

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5 Pros and Cons of Later School Start Times

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Many attempts have been made to switch school start times to later hours. High schools in the U.S. generally start at 8 a.m. if not earlier. Considering commute and morning preparations, students are rising long before dawn to spend six to eight hours of dealing with academic and other school activities.

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Experts warned that school times work against adolescent circadian physiology, which can be nearly three hours behind that of an adult, leading to chronic sleep deprivation. A lack of sleep is known to lead to poor school performance, obesity, heart problems, metabolic disorders, suicidal thoughts, risk-taking behaviours and athletic injuries.

Although most schools in Britain start between 8.30am and 9am, British experts said that it would be helpful if they started even later.

Dr Paul Kelley, an expert in sleep, circadian and memory neuroscience at The Open University, said: "I actually think teenagers shouldn't be starting school until 10am or later. Circadian rhythms shift dramatically during puberty and that impact continues right through university years.

"The lag peaks in males at around 19, so university students would benefit from starting at 11 or 1130. We've have shown that early start times are unfair for more than half of students. They are not at their best so there performance is always going to be sub-optimal.

"Sleep deprivation has effects right across all the body's functions, it impacts all systems. But it is a tricky one to get right because everyone is different, so shifting times to help one group might be disadvantageous to another."

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Teenagers should start school later to avoid car crashes, suicide and depression

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Experts warned that school times work against adolescent circadian physiology, which can be nearly three hours behind that of an adult, leading to chronic sleep deprivation. A lack of sleep is known to lead to poor school performance, obesity, heart problems, metabolic disorders, suicidal thoughts, risk-taking behaviours and athletic injuries.

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Express yourself freely about the issue of whether or not schools should start later for students of certain ages.

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Despite health and learning benefits, half of parents against later school start times | Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation

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The results come from a nationally representative survey through the U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Poll on Children's Health. In it, 554 parents whose teens all start school before 8:30 a.m. shared opinions on how much sleep their children need and whether later school start times are a good idea.

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"Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." This well-known proverb, say scientists from the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and the University of Nevada is only helping to make students' lives miserable. The conventional wisdom that going to bed early and getting up early leads to productivity and success is, in the case of teenagers at least, simply wrong. Paul Kelley, Steven Lockey, Russell Foster and Jonathan Kelley argue that letting students sleep and starting school later can lead to better health and academic outcomes.

Unfortunately, concerns about lack of sleep often get the brush-off from schools and even some parents who are quick to blame inattentiveness in school solely on teen behavior, laziness, general indifference, or all of the above. If only they went to bed earlier, concentration and attentiveness would improve. But in their report, the researchers say that schools are ignoring adolescent biology and are "systemically restricting the time available for sleep and causing severe and chronic sleep loss."

They're not alone. The chorus of voices in favor of schools starting later has been getting louder. In August, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued findings that lay out a stark and sobering picture of how sleep deprivation harms teenagers, a common problem among high school students especially. Adolescents who don't get enough sleep (CDC recommends 9-10 hours) have an increased risk of being overweight, suffering depression, and struggling academically.

Less than one third of U.S. students, however, are sleeping at least 8 hours on school nights and four out of five middle and high schools start their day before 8:30 a.m. A consensus has emerged among health experts that this is simply too early.

In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended middle and high schools delay the start of class to 8:30 a.m. or later, necessary to align school schedules to the biological sleep rhythms of adolescents.

"Chronic sleep loss in children and adolescents is one of the most common - and easily fixable - public health issues in the U.S. today," said Dr. Judith Owens, author of the AAP policy statement. "Delaying early school start times is one key factor that can help adolescents get the sleep they need to grow and learn."

"The teenage body is nocturnal," adds Dr. Denise Pope of Stanford University's Graduate School of Education and co-founder of Challenge Success. "Their circadian rhythms are different from adults. So even starting school at 8:30 can make a huge difference."

Currently, only Alaska and North Dakota meet the 8:30 a.m. standard - barely. The average school start time in Alaska is 8:33. North Dakota is a couple minutes behind at 8:31. (Louisiana had the earliest start time - 7:40 a.m.)

In 2014, the University of Minnesota released a study that examined data from more than 9,000 students attending eight high schools in three states. The study found that attendance and academic performance in math, English, science and social studies improved at schools with later start times, while tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression declined. At Edina High School outside of Minneapolis - the first school in the country to shift to a later start (7:20 to 8:30 a.m.) - school counselors and nurses reported fewer students seeking help for emotional problems and physical complaints. Furthermore, 92 percent of parents in Edina said their teenagers were "easier to live with."

As most experts urge schools to begin school later than 8:30 a.m., the Oxford and Harvard researchers up the ante and recommend 10 a.m., which they say properly aligns with the "biological wake-up time" of a typical 16-year-old. That would mean 6:30 a.m. for a 10-year-old, so school for them should start somewhere between 8:30 and 9 a.m. A college freshman should have his or her first class between 11 and 11:30.

This "relatively simple step," the researchers insist, is both practical and necessary:
The synchronization of education to adolescent biology enables immediate advances in educational attainment and can be achieved with a relatively simple step that does not require new teaching methods, new testing or large additional expenditure...Good policies should be based on good evidence, and the data show that children are currently placed at an enormous disadvantage by being forced to keep to inappropriate education times.
Kelley, Lockley, and Foster acknowledge that deep-seated and largely false assumptions about teen behavior and the benefits of waking up early are obstacles to the acceptance of later school start times. Still, not many districts would describe the move as a "simple step." Legitimate, practical considerations have to be considered - the impact on bus schedules and after school programs, for example - and buy-in from educators, parents and the community is essential.

"Changing schools is hard, and getting schools to start as late as 9:00 or 9:30, when teenage bodies are actually only waking up, would be a tough sell," says Pope. "But the best thing is to take it slow and look at how changing schedules affects everyone. It's not just the students. It's teachers, bus drivers, everyone at school, and especially parents. When multiple stakeholders are around the table, you can make effective change."
Photos: Associated Press

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Despite Proven Benefits, Starting School Later Remains a 'Tough Sell' - NEA Today

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"Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." This well-known proverb, say scientists from the University of Oxford, Harvard University, and the University of Nevada is only helping to make students' lives miserable.

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Well, that's a relief. The Center for American Progress, a US thinktank, was the latest body (in 2016) to propound the theory that teenagers would learn better if they started school later.

I confess that I was worried as the evidence appeared to mount up: my gut feeling was that it was spurious science, and that we would do our pupils a disservice if we decided to fit the school day around kids who can't get out of bed.

So I welcome the publication of new research, far more authoritative, which finally debunks that myth.

According to a Tes article earlier this week, "academics from Surrey University and Harvard Medical School ... argue that delaying school times would simply cause most teenagers' internal clocks to drift later, and in a matter of weeks they would find it just as hard to get out of bed".

I'm sympathetic to those who aren't natural early risers. I'm not one who catches the worm, and find the winter grind of arriving at work before it's light pretty depressing, particularly when it's dark again by 4pm (which just goes to show how gritty and resilient we Northerners are).

I've never been one of those macho school leaders who's first into school and last out. I reckon I put the hours in: but not by being at my desk at sparrow's fart.

Conversely, at my advanced age, I don't actually sleep well: at this late stage of term (schools are still working up in the North East), my brain's so overloaded that I feel I spend half the night awake: when the alarm goes off, I'm asleep again, trying to catch up.

They'd just go to bed even later...

I'm sharing my middle-aged angst only to show that I can empathise with those who hate getting up. Nonetheless, my instinct chimes with this new research: starting late would mean finishing late, so teenagers would simply go to bed even later.

Adolescents, fighting hormones and who knows what else, are unlike other beings: but they are not so different from the rest of us that we should feel obliged to create a discrete timetable for them.

Currently anticipating the joy of retirement, I'll enjoy liberation from the tyranny of the alarm-clock and work schedule: after 39 years at the chalk face, I think I've earned that luxury. But the routine of work (and, come to that, school) is something we just have to live with. Deal with it.

I'm susceptible to light. I was starting to wake up early, with the dawn, until the clocks went forward last Sunday: Monday morning suddenly felt dark and cheerless again.

As it happens, the Surrey/Harvard researchers had something interesting to say about light. The later teenagers stay up, the more they use lights, and stare at screens. They would do better, say the researchers, to have brighter illumination during the day and turn the lights down (and screens off) at night.

As Tes reported: "The analysis took into account factors such as whether someone is naturally a morning or evening person, the effects of natural and artificial light on body clocks and the typical time of an alarm clock."

Even accounting for variables, they found that too much light and screen time in the evening adversely affects sleep. That matches precisely the growing body of research into sleep and mental health: poor sleep is linked to poor mental health.

"An hour before midnight is worth two after," my old Mum used to say. Have scientists carried out all that research just to prove the bleedin' obvious?

Maybe: but it's true and, if nothing else, they've nailed a silly lie based on dodgy science.

If they get enough sleep at the right time, teenagers indeed can get up and into school - and learn better, too. So that's the next challenge for schools and parents!

QED. I'm a whole lot happier.

Still, come the weekend, it'll be good to have a lie-in...
Dr Bernard Trafford is headteacher of the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne, and a former chair of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The views expressed here are personal. He tweets at @bernardtrafford To read more columns, view his back catalogue Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow Tes on Twitter and like Tes on Facebook

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'Letting teenagers start late? Routine is something they have to learn - deal with it'

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Well, that's a relief. The Center for American Progress , a US thinktank, was the latest body (in 2016) to propound the theory that teenagers would learn better if they started school later.

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For the first time, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging education policymakers to start middle- and high-school classes later in the morning. The idea is to improve the odds of adolescents getting sufficient sleep so they can thrive both physically and academically.

The CDC's recommendations come a year after the American Academy of Pediatrics urged schools to adjust start times so more kids would get the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of nightly rest. Both the CDC and the pediatricians' group cited significant risks that come with lack of sleep, including higher rates of obesity and depression and motor-vehicle accidents among teens as well as an overall lower quality of life.

"Getting enough sleep is important for students' health, safety, and academic performance," Anne Wheaton, the lead author and epidemiologist in the CDC's Division of Population Health, said in a statement. "Early school start times, however, are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep they need."
"Everybody learns better when they're awake."
In more than 40 states, at least 75 percent of public schools start earlier than 8:30 a.m., according to the CDC's report. And while later start times won't replace other important interventions-like parents making sure their children get enough rest-schools clearly play an important role in students' daily schedules, the report concluded.

While the federal recommendation is making headlines, the data on the potential risks of chronically tired adolescents isn't new information. Indeed, the research has been accumulating steadily for years, including some recent large-scale studies.

As the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported in April, the University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement "finally put to rest the long-standing question of whether later start times correlate to increased academic performance for high-school students":

Researchers analyzed data from more than 9,000 students at eight high schools in Minnesota, Colorado, and Wyoming and found that shifting the school day later in the morning resulted in a boost in attendance, test scores, and grades in math, English, science, and social studies. Schools also saw a decrease in tardiness, substance abuse, and symptoms of depression. Some even had a dramatic drop in teen car crashes.

Here's what the research shows: Adolescents' "internal clocks"-the circadian rhythms that control a human's responses to stimuli and determine sleep patterns-operate differently than those of other age groups. It's typically more difficult for adolescents to fall asleep earlier in the evening than it is for other age demographics. And while teenagers are going to bed later, their school start times are often becoming earlier as they advance through middle and high school.

In a landmark study in 1998 of adolescent sleeping habits, the Brown University researcher Mary Carskadon followed 10th-graders who were making the switch to a 7:20 a.m. start time, about an hour earlier than their schedule as ninth-graders. Despite the new schedule, the students went to bed at about the same time as they did the year before: 10:40 p.m. on average.
The students bordered on "pathologically sleepy."
Carskadon's team found that students showed up for morning classes seriously sleep-deprived and that the 7:20 a.m. start time required them to be awake during hours that ran contrary to their internal clocks. Fewer than half of the 10th-graders averaged even seven hours of sleep each night, which is already below the recommended amount. Indeed, Carskadon's team concluded the students bordered on "pathologically sleepy."

So, if the science is so strong, what's getting in the way of changing the policy?

Carskadon, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior, notes that passionate arguments abound on both sides of the debate-just about all of which she's heard over the years. In some districts, the start times are largely dictated by local transportation companies, with school boards and superintendents contending they lack the funds or authority to change things. Meanwhile, parents are often reluctant to have teens start later, whether because they rely on having older children at home in the afternoons to take care of younger siblings or because they're concerned that it will interfere with extracurricular opportunities. Indeed, there's always a vocal chorus warning that later start times will hurt high-school sports.

But none of those worries override the reality that, as Carskadon put it, "everybody learns better when they're awake."

Implementing later start times can be feasible without causing major disruptions, as many school districts have demonstrated, Carskadon said. But it requires that all stakeholders commit to what's often a time-consuming process of finding creative solutions, which, she added, isn't always easy.

The medical writer and mother of three Terra Ziporyn Snider, who's emerged as a national advocate for later start times, also cited widespread challenges hindering schools from making the switch. Getting school systems to change takes more than just presenting scientific evidence, said Snider, the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Start School Later. The organization deploys volunteers to communities that are considering later school start times to bolster grassroots efforts.

"Social norms are at the root of this problem-most people don't take [adolescent sleep deprivation] seriously and don't see it as a public-health issue," Snider said. "That kind of thinking has to change."
"The real obstacles are failure of imagination."
One of the problems facing advocates of later school start times is that the people sympathetic to their cause seldom have the authority to reset the academic clock, Snider said. Parents typically only care about the issue when it affects their own families' schedules, she said. That means roughly every four years the key players are replaced, and the grassroots efforts have to start from scratch.

"You start talking about changing start times, and people immediately jump to [all kinds of conclusions]. Teens will miss out on sports. L ittle kids will go to school in the dark and get run over by a car. What will happen to my child care? " Snider said. "A lot of these fears and speculations turn out to be red herrings. The real obstacles are failure of imagination."

Snider is hopeful that the policy pressures are reaching a tipping point, though, with the help of major voices like the CDC weighing in.

"It's becoming increasingly embarrassing to say, 'If we start school later, what happens to my kid's three-hour soccer practice?'" Snider said. "We have to convince school systems this has to happen for the health of kids. It's not a negotiable school budget item-it's an absolute requirement."
This post appears courtesy of the Education Writers Association.

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For the first time, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging education policymakers to start middle- and high-school classes later in the morning. The idea is to improve the odds of adolescents getting sufficient sleep so they can thrive both physically and academically.

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C. Devan/Getty Images

The evidence continues to mount that school starts too early, leaving teenagers groggy and sleep-deprived when they should be learning. A recent Canadian study underscored that point, suggesting that starting school an hour later would likely improve learning and mental health-it'd even help prevent car accidents. Now, a position paper from a major sleep-research organization reiterates those benefits, and new research suggests it's not just high schoolers who should get to sleep later: College students could use some extra rest, too.

The call for letting teens sleep comes from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), with a position statement published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. For middle and high school students, it says, the school day should begin at 8:30 am or later. The group recommends 13 to 18 year-olds should regularly sleep 8 to 10 hours, yet data from the Centers for Disease Control show almost 70 percent of high school students report sleeping 7 hours or fewer on school nights.

The problem is that many schools just aren't designed for teens' circadian clocks, which shift about two or three hours later as they hit puberty, before shifting back in their early twenties. Changing biology makes it harder for them to fall asleep early, and combined with waking up early that can result in chronic sleep loss.

"Starting school at 8:30 AM or later gives teens a better opportunity to get the sufficient sleep they need to learn and function at their highest level," said lead author and AASM Past President Nathaniel Watson in a statement. Later start times have also been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association. Interestingly, that Canadian study went even further, recommending a 9:30 am start.

It's not just middle- and high-schoolers who could benefit from more sleep: A new study looking at university students found similar results. In fact, it suggested that optimal start times would be 11 am or noon-you know, basically the advice you'd get from any savvy upperclassman.

The authors reached that conclusion by combining two methods. They surveyed students about their chronotype (when they sleep and when they feel most alert), and they created a neurological model based on research into circadian rhythms. They took into account factors such as students' ages, the university's geographical location, and even the effects of daylight savings time.

The two approaches yielded similar results and dovetailed with the general research that later start times serve students better. Though the researchers note that thanks to differing chronotypes, any start time is likely to put someone at disadvantage. The most practical solution might be three alternative starts along with a shared session in the afternoon, when everyone's relatively alert.

Whether all this empirical evidence will lead to change is hard to say. After all, much of this isn't new knowledge; there are a lot of deeply entrenched beliefs about "early to bed, early to rise" and the connection between sleeping late and perceived laziness. Still, according to some, " sleep is the new status symbol." Maybe that kind of thinking, combined with the newest research, will help us redesign institutions to better suit our need to rest.
Read This Next: More Evidence that School Starts Way Too Early

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Scientists Really, Really Think School Should Start Later

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C. Devan/Getty Images The evidence continues to mount that school starts too early, leaving teenagers groggy and sleep-deprived when they should be learning. A recent Canadian study underscored that point, suggesting that starting school an hour later would likely improve learning and mental health-it'd even help prevent car accidents.