They also call attention to the findings of a study in the Journal of Pediatrics, which concluded that energy drinks containing high concentrations of caffeine, which many teens consume to stay awake, could harm adolescents’ neurological and cardiovascular systems. This lack of sleep not only causes students to perform poorly throughout the school day but also potentially harms physical growth and brain development by lowering the level of human growth hormone their bodies produce.įurther, a 2010 study published in the journal Sleep found that the teens who stay up past midnight are 24 percent more likely to experience depression. The National Sleep Foundation has determined that American teenagers require about 9 ¼ hours of sleep a night, while a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that two-thirds of high school students sleep for no more than seven hours each night. The longitudinal study, titled “To Study or to Sleep? The Academic Costs of Extra Studying at the Expense of Sleep” and published in Child Development(August 20, 2012), found that when adolescent students sleep less in order to study more, they have trouble comprehending class material and struggle with assignments and tests on the following day.Ī Macolumn in The Washington Post titled “Sleep Deprivation and Teens: Walking Zombies,” noted troubling findings regarding teens and sleep deprivation. The Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders, located in Chevy Chase, Maryland, conducted a study that found that without adequate sleep, adolescents process information differently, which in turn has a negative effect on school performance.
Researchers have found that sleep and learning are inextricably linked, and suggest that adolescents sleep 8 ½ to 9 ½ hours a day. The problem is more apparent in suburban and rural school districts serving large townships and counties. Mounting EvidenceĪdded to the early start is the length of the bus ride, which can vary from less than 20 minutes to one hour, depending on a student’s proximity to the school. Nevertheless, despite the impact on more than 2,000 adolescents housed in two high schools, the schedule remains firmly in place along with excessive tardiness in the first period classes. I have pointed out the obvious: young children go to bed much earlier than adolescents and, as most parents know, awake earlier. I have recently completed a one-year contract serving as the interim superintendent in Parsippany, where the start time at the high school is 7:40 a.m. I suspect this is the norm in most secondary schools in the country. at the majority of high schools in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, where I have worked for the past 48 years. New Jersey School Boards Association Login Search Menuĭespite the wealth of research on sleep deprivation and its effects on growing adolescents, the school day begins before 8 a.m.
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