Should ELHS Start Later?

By Katie Powell ’27

On January 17th, 2024, the East Longmeadow School District issued a two hour delay due to snowy weather conditions, changing the start time of ELHS from 7:25 AM to 9:25 AM. While this later start time isn’t the norm for the EL school district nor its surrounding districts, it is for various school districts across the country, which begs the question, should the East Longmeadow School District start school later in the morning?

Out of all the age cohorts, teenagers need the most sleep since they are still growing– eight and a half to nine and a half hours of sleep per night, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. However, recent studies conducted by the National Sleep Foundation have shown that a whopping 87% of high school students in the U.S. aren’t getting it. Most teenagers get less than seven hours of sleep per night; this leads to a generation of teenagers who have insanely high levels of sleepiness, proportional to the sleepiness that people with sleep disorders such as narcolepsy experience. 

A lack of sleep among teenagers is primarily caused by early school start times; on average, only around 58% of public high schools in the U.S. start around eight in the morning, with 42% of U.S. public high schools starting earlier. About 10% of those schools–ELHS included–begin before seven thirty in the morning. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a start time of 8:30 AM.

A teenager’s circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle on which their brains regulate emotions, chemical reactions in the body, and feelings of awakeness, shifts so that teenagers feel less tired in the evening and more groggy in the early morning hours. This is simple biology, and there is no fix for this shift in their circadian rhythm. It’s normal and natural. 

A sleep deprivation epidemic sweeping the nation has serious consequences for teenagers: an increased risk of obesity; an increased risk of metabolic dysfunction; cardiovascular morbidity; and an increased risk of substance abuse. There’s also increased risk of a caffeine overdose and toxicity, due to an increased usage. 

Lack of sleep has also been strongly linked to increased anxiety, depression, in addition to suicidal thoughts and actions. Increased chances of participating in risky behaviors, as well as hindered complex thinking, working memory, and time management have also been tied to lack of sleep.  Similarly, lower academic performance and achievement, worsened ability in abstract thinking and creativity, increased school dropout rates, and decreased school attendance have all been connected to lack of sleep as well. 

While the human body is sleeping, it is also repairing lots of its tissue, including very crucial tissue such as heart tissue; less sleep means this tissue isn’t getting repaired enough, leading to some serious health risks. To add  to these dangers, a lack of sleep among teenagers puts them at a higher risk of being involved in car accidents. Drivers younger than 25 years old are involved in over half of the estimated 100,000 police reported drowsy driving car accidents. 

Less sleep among teenagers is also linked to increased school tardiness as well as an increase in the number of teenagers who fall asleep during class; According to a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 28% of students admitted to falling asleep during class at least once a week. 

While the effects of later school start times are still being monitored, many districts have observed positive results. School districts that start between 8:00 and 8:45 AM see decreases in disciplinary/behavioral issues, improved grades and increased GPAs and standardized test scores (especially in students’ first-period subjects), a decrease in irritability and mental health issues/depressed symptoms among adolescents, improved attendance and decreased tardiness. 

One study conducted by the University of Washington and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies on two public high schools in the Seattle Public Schools District in Washington, which has changed the start times of its middle and high schools from 7:50 to 8:00 AM, has reported that students were receiving an average of 34 minutes more sleep a night. Researchers observed that academic performance improved as well, with final grades increasing by 4.5% as compared to the grades of students who attended school in the district prior to its switch to a later start time. Researchers also found that first-period absences and tardiness decreased with the later start time as well. 

In 2022, Califormia became the first state in the U.S. to mandate that public high schools couldn’t start school any earlier than 8:30 AM. Results are still being studied, but teenagers report that it is easier to get up and out in the morning and easier to remain awake and alert during school hours. They now have more time in the morning for homework and test prep. 

In Massachusetts, organizations such as Start School Later, a group of health professionals, sleep doctors and scientists, educators, students, and parents, have been pushing to change school start times in Massachusetts. Recently, they presented a bill for consideration before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education.  

The benefits of two extra hours of sleep caused by the two-hour delay on January 17th were very evident. In an interview with Lily Knee, a 9th grade student at ELHS, she described how she felt the two-hour delay benefited herself and her peers, and how she would feel about ELHS switching to a later start time.

Spartan Spectator: Did you feel more awake and alert during the school day with the extra two hours of sleep? Did you feel more energized during the school day?

Lily Knee: Yes, I was more energized. It was easier to focus in class, and teachers seemed more awake and prepared too. 

Spartan Spectator: What do you think the long term results, academic and otherwise, would be if ELHS permanently changed its start time to a later hour in the morning? Are you for or against ELHS and other school districts across both Massachusetts and the rest of the country having their Middle and High Schools start later in the morning?

Lily Knee: I think it would be better overall. I think the number of absences would decline overall, since a lot of our students are chronically absent during the school year; a lot of the absences are in the morning because classes start early in the morning and many students sleep through their first period class because their bodies aren’t programmed to wake up that early. I think that grades would go up, especially during the first period class; it’s harder to retain information from your first period class because you’re still very sleepy.

Spartan Spectator: On average, how many hours of sleep would you say you receive on a school night? What time do you usually go to sleep and wake up on a school day? Are you often tired and sleepy during the school day?

Lily Knee: On average, I get around seven to eight hours of sleep per school night. I usually go to sleep around ten, give or take a half hour, and wake up around six. I am usually very sleepy during the school day. My first period class is definitely the hardest to stay awake in because it’s so early. I do feel more awake as the day goes on, but I am still always somewhat tired during the day. When I have sports over the weekend I can’t catch up on the sleep I missed during the school week, and so I end up being very exhausted during the school week. 

Spartan Spectator: That is around one and a half hours less than the recommended nine and a half hours of sleep per night by the American Academy of Pediatrics. How do you feel your mental, physical, and emotional health would change/benefit if you got more sleep per night? 

Lily Knee: If I got more sleep I think I would definitely be more ready to interact with people in school and better hone in on the social component in school. In addition, in the early morning, it’s very hard to eat breakfast, if school were later, we’d have more time to adjust to being awake, be able to eat, and have more energy for the day. In the mornings it’s easy to forget things at home, especially if you wake up later and have to rush to get out the door. If school started later, there would be less people missing their alarms, and so students would have more time in the morning to fully prepare for the school day. 

Spartan Spectator: Do you have any other final comments or opinions on this topic?

Lily Knee: Personally, I wouldn’t mind school starting an hour later and therefore ending an hour later in the day; I don’t think it would affect sports or after school jobs that much. Most people have jobs after school but they typically don’t start immediately after school. Pushing back practice by an hour wouldn’t really affect sports or the sports schedule too much. Teachers wouldn’t be impacted that much by getting out of work one hour later either since most adults, such as their friends and spouses, get off work close to five or six in the evening anyway. 

While there are no signs that ELHS and its surrounding districts will switch to later start times any time soon, it’s clear that there would be numerous benefits for students, academic and otherwise, and that the district as a whole would have better numbers and function more smoothly. For now though, the 7:25 bell will sound through ELHS, waking up the still sleepy adolescents as their school day begins.