We have to wake up entirely way too early for school. You might ask yourself how our brains are supposed to function and process information at 8:05 in the morning when you are staring at the board in that really hard class and everything starts just mushing together. According to Education Week, it is actually extremely hard to retain information before 9 am.

The first thing that comes to mind when you think about school is how early you have to get up. Students would be more productive and have better attitudes. The school would be way more productive if we weren’t trying to keep ourselves awake during lessons or Scott Reed’s debates with that one confrontational student.

The National Sleep Foundation research found that it has been proven that schools that start at 8:30 and later have seen their students thrive in their academics. Teenagers are supposed to get eight to ten hours of sleep to be able to use their brains to their full potential. On average, the normal teenager gets four to seven hours of sleep due to homework and activities. Studies from Education Week also show how schools that start at 8:30 reduced their tardiness by 40%, and visits to the nurse dropped 50% when school started at later. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine when teens hit puberty they have a delay in their brain timers. As a result, we don’t start to feel sleepy until around 10:45. That doesn’t mean that we fall asleep at 10:45 that just means we are ready for bed more then we were throughout the whole day.

The brain can not fully function if it is not fully rested. Due to the fact that we are stressed out about our lives and school 24/7, we are not going to just fall asleep right when we get in bed. Our brains have too much going on to not get enough sleep and push through the day. Think about it\; you are up late finishing that worksheet or paper that is taking you way longer than you thought it was going to take. What do you do? Either you finish the worksheet/paper but not be able to absorb anything you learn the next day because you didn’t get the right amount of sleep or you go to sleep but go to class with an incomplete worksheet/paper and a bad grade to follow.
Most responsible teens will finish their assignments, but in the same way, they are still being extremely irresponsible with keeping themselves healthy. A grade to most means more than their sleep. It reflects on our reports and could even affect your college choices. When it comes to school and sleep good students will pick schoolwork, over their sleeping health.

Developing minds need time to rest. Of course, sometimes it is on us to make the decision and choose between coming home from a long day of school and social interaction and jumping in bed and to watch Netflix, or getting right to our homework. The latter option requires working for long hours in a day but helps you in the long run.

Starting school later would work very well in our school system ad all school systems. Most teens are not morning people. When you wake up late for school you feel more energized and ready for the day\; even when you go to bed late, you still feel great in the morning if you wake up a little later. There is something about waking up when the sun is up and not hiding behind the mountain that makes school much more enjoyable. Why waste four years of your life going through school and not remembering your first class or even classes after that due to your lack of sleep.