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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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Teens May Do Better When School Starts Later

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Teens aren't wired to wake up so early, so middle and high schools should start later, sleep experts say.

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Good Reasons Why School Should Start Later

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Are there good reasons for starting school later? Yes. There are many benefits of starting school later; especially for middle school and high school students. .

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Returning to later, healthier, safer, evidence-based school hours is a reform with the potential to improve the health, safety, and academic achievement of all students. What are we waiting for?
Sleep experts have determined a shift in sleep cycles (circadian rhythms) beginning in adolescence that makes it more difficult for most adolescents to fall asleep as early as younger children or older adults. Typical sleep cycles begin around 11 p.m. for teenagers and continue through 8 a.m. This means that an early wake-up call (5 or 6 a.m. to allow many teens to catch buses or commute to early-start schools) not only allows 6 or 7 hours of sleep per school night at most but also deprives adolescents of a critical part of their sleep the part of their sleep cycle.* According to most sleep experts, most adolescents need about 9 hours of sleep per night. Today nearly 3/4 get under 8 hours of sleep per night, and over 2/5 get 6 or fewer.

Over 10% of U.S. high schools currently start before 7:30 a.m., 43% start before 8 a.m., and under 15% start after 8:30 a.m. Over 20% of U.S. middle schools start class at 7:45 a.m. or earlier. Bus pick-ups start as early as 5 a.m. in some districts, and teens must wake at 5 or 6 a.m. to get to school on time. Meanwhile, the school day ends in the early afternoon, sometimes even before 2 p.m. These schedules are out-of-sync with the sleep needs and patterns of middle and high school students, whose brains and bodies are still growing, and create a huge sleep debt every week of the school year.

. The health, safety, and equity benefits to starting middle and high school at times more in sync with the sleep needs and patterns of students are irrefutable. Early school hours PREVENT many students and young teachers from getting the 9 or so hours of sleep per night that most teenagers and young adults need

* REM (rapid-eye-movement) sleep, wherememory consolidation and emotional regulation take place, is concentrated in the last third of the night.

A hundred years ago most schools (and places of business) started the day around 9 a.m. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, many schools shifted to earlier hours. Back then the importance of sleep and the nature of the adolescent sleep shift weren't understood, and the cost savings of running the fewest possible buses in three cycles was appealing. Even schools that didn't run buses often found it helpful to move start times earlier so that after-school schedules coordinated with those of nearby schools. As a result, many students today are asked to go to school on a "morning shift" schedule, one that requires that they be in class much earlier than many of their parents and grandparents might have been. When public school times change, the whole community's rhythms change: "after" school stretches to four hours (and fills up with activities) or kids are unsupervised during the peak period for adolescent crime and risky behavior until the typical adult workday ends. Elementary schools start as late as 9:15 or 9:30, forcing working parents to send their young children to before-school care as well as after-care. Families whose children are in multiple school levels often have start and end times that span two hours in the morning and another two hours in the afternoon. The cost is being borne by students and their families.

Since the 1990s, sleep researchers and other health professionals have been telling us that these early school hours are harming children. It's not just the numbers of hours of sleep, but also the timing of sleep that is required for optimal health. Sleep deprivation's impacts include: weight gain and eating disorders and increased risk of obesity, cardiovascular problems, and diabetes; reduced immunity; depression; anxiety; substance abuse; mood swings; behavior problems; suicidal ideation; and potential impacts on brain development.

Kids are out walking to the bus or driving to school in the dark for most of the school year in many communities. With few adults around, they are at risk. Drowsy driving increases - for our newest drivers. Teens released in the early afternoon (sometimes well before 2 p.m.!) have hours of unsupervised time until the typical adult work day ends. Sleep deprivation increases risk-taking behavior, substance abuse, and impedes judgment and decision-making ability.

Equity and Achievement Gap

Private schools rarely start earlier than 8 a.m. - and even those that start this early do so primarily to accommodate community life that centers on early-starting public schools. Parents with means can pull their children out of early-starting schools or they can choose to drive them to school or provide them with cars to give their children extra sleep in the mornings. They can drive provide late rides to school and absence notes on occasion to overcome the health, safety, and learning impact of chronic sleep deprivation. Families with fixed work schedules or lacking transportation aren't able to help their kids if they miss the bus and thus put their children at risk of tardiness or absence. As a result, children from disadvantaged backgrounds not only risk higher rates of tardiness and truancy, but also higher rates of dropping out of school - potentially increasing the achievement gap. When school start times are moved later, not only do rates of tardiness, truancy, absenteeism, and dropping-out decline, but improvements in academic achievement are nearly twice as high in students from economically disadvantaged homes.

School Success

Kids who are tired can't learn at their best, and sleep deprivation impairs learning, memory, and attention as much as it impairs health and overall well-being. Academic improvements have been shown, and overall school climate has been measurably improved when high schools have restored later start times. Teachers have commented extensively about the improvement in the classroom environment when students are more alert, less moody, and less likely to sleep in class.

Successful Change

Hundreds of schools around the United States have restored later start times, and many more never moved to extremely early hours in the first place. The schools that have found affordable, feasible ways to do so have been both large and small. Some have seen cost-savings by redesigning transportation systems more efficiently and applied those cost-savings to any expense incurred by re-scheduling. These districts can say they looked at the science of what's best for the students and made the change accordingly. They are seeing large and small benefits to physical and mental heath, learning, attendance, graduation rates, car crashes, and overall student well-being.

▼ THIS IS YOUR POP WINDOW ▼

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Returning to later, healthier, safer, evidence-based school hours is a reform with the potential to improve the health, safety, and academic achievement of all students. What are we waiting for? Sleep experts have determined a shift in sleep cycles (circadian rhythms) beginning in adolescence that makes it more difficult for most adolescents to fall asleep as early as younger children or older adults.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Learn how later school start times may help adolescents get enough sleep.