Pediatricians' Rx for schools: Later start times

[RandySF]

CHICAGO (AP) — Pediatricians have a new prescription for schools: later start times for teens.

Delaying the start of the school day until at least 8:30 a.m. would help curb their lack of sleep, which has been linked with poor health, bad grades, car crashes and other problems, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a new policy.


The influential group says teens are especially at risk; for them, "chronic sleep loss has increasingly become the norm."

Studies have found that most U.S. students in middle school and high school don't get the recommended amount of sleep — 8½ to 9½ hours on school nights; and that most high school seniors get an average of less than seven hours.



http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/medical/article/Pediatricians-Rx-for-schools-Later-start-times-5709383.php

[lunasun]

1. They can't go to bed earlier?

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. I taught classes that started well before 8:30am.

I went to sleep early, but starting at that hour was hard. I never felt as ready to go as I wanted to. I know it wasn't my best teaching and gawd knows what they learned at times.

In addition, some kids who travel by bus have long rides and have to be up much earlier.

[redqueen]

4. Teens' sleep schedules are different.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/tween-and-teen-health/in-depth/teens-health/art-20046157

[lunasun]

8. The suggestions are a no brainier to me but I guess parents need to read them to help

their kids. Our two teens are usually up before everyone else except the cats and alert but they are on a schedule and there is a break before sleep time and any direct light like a computer . They do suffer if on a weekend they go off schedule and I agree with suggesting a nap the next day but not the whole afternoon! Otherwise they would never get back on schedule
Light is a big factor regarding sleep even for adults.
One thing I noticed about their friends who brag they can stay up as long as they want to is they tend to be the less active ones too. Lack of sleep needed I think drains physical energy too.
They are old enough now to push it but they do not and I think it has just become habit from when they were younger and the few times they do it they always go back on schedule and avoiding direct face light because they are miserable the next day or so. Feeling bad or not up to par causes the return to schedule
Teens need a lot of sleep and they can get if they try IMO.
I truly believe it makes them happier too not just alert. Being active earlier in the day will lead to an easy sleep at night too. After school sports are great but too many park districts schedule teen levels too late in the evening
The suggestions do not mention daily exercise! Just laying off caffeine....
I heard parents complain about struggles to get them up and then their teen walks in with an extra large sugared coffee in hand before dinner

[Blue_Adept]

12. My daughter's HS begins at 7:20

Which means she has to be up by 6am at the latest to get ready for everything. And she lives just a few blocks from the school. Others in town have a 30+ minute bus ride to contend with as well.

There are quite a few that have to get up at 5am to be ready for all they have to deal with in order to just get to school with these early times. Early times that are often dictated because of afterschool activities, primarily sports.

[lunasun]

14. Classes begin or an optional extra curriculum ? I noticed a lot has been pushed to early extras as

Opposed to after school

[Blue_Adept]

15. Classes begin.

I would have stated extracurricular if that was the case. It's not. They have to get the buses in for these kids and then the middle school that begins at 7:47 and then the k-elementary schools (of which we have three) that are staggered between 8 and 8:30 am.

[lunasun]

16. That is too early! !

[Blue_Adept]

18. That's how it's been for awhile now.

It was like that when I was in high school back in the mid 80's as well, probably some minor changes by a few minutes at times, but largely the same.

It's not healthy. But it's how the majority of schools are. I feel bad for the kids that have to do the 30 minute bus rides and get up that much earlier because of it. My kid is lucky in that we're literally four streets away so I take her down 10 minutes before school starts so she can socialize a bit and hang out without having to walk it. She walks home though to get that time to clear her mind. But largely it takes about an hour in the morning to get ready with all that needs doing, especially for young women with all the basic (and not over the top) care that goes into getting cleaned up, showering, etc.

[lunasun]

20. Guess we are lucky . They both wAlk too although they could bus it starts at 8:10

So e of the extras start as early as 6:45 and both decided not to participate in those as it would be overload. We work around what we can to make up for what they would miss and they are the ones who declared too much, not us.
So the one playing violin misses orchestra and takes private lessons now . And they are in after school activities
I do understand not everyone can do that, or their kids want the early extras , but in your case it's early for. Classroom = not a choice

[WinkyDink]

41. Class. I taught British Lit at 7:30 a.m.

[riderinthestorm]

23. Mine too and since we're rural the bus pickup was at 6:20

That meant getting up at 5:45 am.

Its ridiculous. The teens would have less time home alone after school to be truant too if they started later besides the teachers having a better class of participatory kids rather than the sleep addled zombies the have walking in the door at 7:15 am

[BrotherIvan]

32. ^^This!^^

What you are saying is *absolutely* correct! I taught high school for a short period and the 7:20 am start time meant a room full of zombies for first period. Most didn't wake up until after lunch and then they were out by 2:15 to terrorize the streets.

It's ridiculous. I know it's because people want to drop off their kids and because of sports, but it is killing their brains for school (and there is far too much accommodation for sports anyway). High School should start at 9 and go until 4 or better yet 5. There has been a study that most crime committed by teenagers is between 2 and 5 pm because they are unsupervised. It's completely out of whack.

[riderinthestorm]

38. Yup. Move sports practices to the mornings before school

That way the motivated minority gets to get up early, voluntarily, while the rest of the school gets enough sleep!

[BrotherIvan]

45. Hey, that's not a bad idea.

I'm just so tired of kids being pulled out of class to go to this football game or that basketball game. Those students often fall very far behind. And the coaches, who make a lot of money, call all the shots. I think sports are good for kids, but bad for students. There needs to be some kind of limit on it.

And the whole idea that kids need to do all these activities for college is just silly. Get the best test scores you can, that's it. I know a guy who was a complete stoner with a C grade average. He got a perfect score on his SATs and offers from every top school in the country. When we asked him how he did it, he gave a stoned chuckle and said, "I do great on standardized tests. They're written for white males."

I also attended a university that people send their children to expensive private schools and pre-schools to get into. For me it was test scores and grades, no school sports (I did outside sports). Maybe travelling experience, who knows. It's very arbitrary. Kids are so over-scheduled it's sickening. And it's hard on the parents as well. Our school system is whacked.

[underpants]

27. Our county has 7:20 and 7:50 schools

Mostly to cut the number of bus drivers needed in half.

My daughter's elementary is a 7:50 and my work starts at 8:15 - no prob. The school is in our neighborhood so I drop her off and go to work.

We realized this weekend that when school starts next week she will be able to sleep in til 7:00. She is a really easy kid to take care of.

[joeglow3]

31. Why does she need almost an hour and a half to get ready?

[Blue_Adept]

35. Not all kids are alike

My personality is one that when my alarm goes off, I'm up and can be out the door in five minutes. others need more time.

[winter is coming]

43. +1. My kid is not a morning person. We learned a long time ago that it takes her a while

to get going in the morning. It's easier and less stressful to wake her up earlier and let her get ready at her own pace than it would be to let her sleep in and then have to constantly remind her to keep moving, hurry up, etc. By getting her up earlier (something that's not fun for me, as she didn't get that "not a morning person" from a stranger), she's ready to participate by the time she gets to school.

[Blue_Adept]

44. Yep

My 14 year old is basically the same way. My 11 year old is more like me. On a weekend, my 14 will sleep till noon. my 11 will be up at 6 or 7 am like me and ready to go and do things.

[riderinthestorm]

39. LOL. you clearly don't have a teenage daughter!

While my girl is now in college it took her until her senior year to ditch the laborious prep that most high school girls put themselves through before school. 1.5 hours isn't unusual in my experience with some high school girls...


(Thank god mine's down to a sensible 15 minutes to get ready and out the door. Ditching the morning makeup cut out a half hour alone! )

[Blue_Adept]

40. Mines not huge on the makeup

But she takes a good shower in the morning (hates doing it the night before as she feels just as sweaty the next morning) but she requires time to actually wake up and function before she can go out the door. In my family, I'm the oddball since I get to just get up and go and do.

[joeglow3]

46. You are correct. I have three boys

My wife did go to an all girls school. She said they best part was that she spent about ten minutes getting ready for school (as did about every other girl).

[Orrex]

13. Maybe not.

If it's a matter of their bodies' preferred rhythims, then tucking them in earlier won't do any good. Further, if they're involved in after-school activities, or if they have jobs, it might not even be an option.

And of course we know that they're studiously pursuing their 10-minute-per-grade daily allotment of homework, as well as an hour or so of nightly leisure reading, plus the recommended prep-time to secure good placement in the university of their choice, the better to participate in our thriving economy of the future.

[tammywammy]

26. HS started at 7:35am for me

I graduated in 1999. It was too early.

Where I work, the day "begins" at 7:30am. Thankfully we have flexible hours, I get here at 8am. The difference between a 7:30 and 8am start is huge for me. I'm more awake and ready to go when I get here at 8am.

[Mariana]

25. If it were that simple

I imagine the doctors would have recommended that.

[cbayer]

2. What a great idea and we should extend it to work times as well.

Teens tend to stay up late. What's the point in making them get up earlier than they are ready.

Hell, I would have the school day from noon to 7PM, or stagger the day so that the kids (and teachers) that do better later in the day are accommodated.

I'm bad in the morning and much much better in the afternoon and evening. Why not take advantage of that?

[pipoman]

9. Good habits begin young

Most of the US comes to life at around 8am.

[cbayer]

11. Are you presuming that it is a good habit to get up early?

Most of the US comes to life at around 8AM because that is the custom. And 8 AM on the East Coast is, of course 5 AM on the west coast.

Studies have shown that people function best at different times, and accommodating those people leads to higher rates of productivity and worker satisfaction. There was a great article about this in the NYT many years ago.

Particularly these days, when one is often dealing with people in all kinds of times zones, it makes sense to get people at the peak of there performance.

8AM is definitely not it for me, though I was forced to work even earlier than that for many, many years.

[BrotherIvan]

34. If you work on a farm

The working world is becoming more flexible. Some jobs must cover an evening or night shift. Some of us telecommute or work from home. Since there are few factory jobs, work schedules have changed quite a bit.

[redqueen]

5. It is a pity these advances take so long to work their way from research to implementation.

Hopefully people will put teenagers' health first, but we'll see.

[redqueen]

6. From an article last year in the CSM

Wahlstrom says research shows teens don't get sleepy until around 10:45 p.m., when their bodies begin to secrete melatonin, but once they fall asleep, they stay asleep for about nine hours and 15 minutes, waking at around 8 a.m. "It's a factor of human biology that studies have replicated in Brazil, Italy, Israel and Korea," Wahlstrom said. "All have found identical sleep-wake patterns in teenagers. It's a human phenomenon, not geared to any culture."

http://m.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2013/0725/Late-to-bed-late-to-rise-Teens-sleep-cycle-calls-for-delayed-school-start/(page)/5

Kyla Wahlstrom is the director of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota

[riderinthestorm]

24. Definitely my experience and my kids. K&R for the actual study nt

[frazzled]

7. They've been saying this since my kids were in school

And that was in the 90s. It used to be a big topic of conversation. Obviously, nothing has changed since then ... so we'll probably hear the same thing 15 years from now.

I am betting the real impediment is after-school activities and sports: coaches don't want late start times for practice that would cause them to lose evening time with their own families.

So as my kids used to say back in the 90s: deal with it.

[pipoman]

10. And parents work schedules. ..

[Kber]

17. Sometimes. Not always. (Mis posted - meant to reply to suggestion to go to sleep earlier)

My son gets home from practice around 5:30 in season and 5:00 off season (when there are "voluntary" workouts). He must get up by 6:00 to make it to class on time.

If the recommended minimum hous of sleep are 8.5, that leaves 4 hours to shower, eat, and do homework associated with 6 core classes, 5 of them AP. I'd say on average, he has about 5-6 hours of homework, reading or studying a day.

He does have 1 study hall where he does homework and about 1 hour between th end of school and the start of practice to study, do homework or talk to teachers.

So in theory, if he eats dinner while studying, spends the hour and study hall doing nothing but homework, never speaks to his family and has NO social life (death to a teenager!) he could probably get to bed around 9:30 pm to get is his 8.5.

[Blue_Adept]

19. Pretty much

If you go by what's supposed to be done, you basically end up with a kid that's focused entirely on academics and nothing else. Which is a detriment to them. Even worse is you get the kids that are doing so many activities to be able to get into a good college that they end up sacrificing who they are and largely discover that the world is going to kick them hard no matter how much effort they put in.

[Kber]

21. It's really hard to get the balance

My son has decided to concentrate on one sport and one extra activity that actually means something to him (environmental activism).

Any more and I think he's spreading himself too thin to be effective, or happy.

There's something to be said for enjoying the moment.

[Blue_Adept]

22. Exactly

I limit the activities to some degree while making sure they have time for both events and friends but also the all import downtime of doing absolutely nothing and just goofing off.

[phylny]

28. Our previous and current school systems do this.

High school starts later than elementary or middle school, and the kids seem happy with it. Not sure about parents anymore, because all our kids are now out of school, but it worked fine for us, except that sports had to start a little later.

[Thirties Child]

29. When I was in high school, early 50s,

school was 9 am - 4 pm for everyone except first graders. The hours are still the same.

[cherokeeprogressive]

30. Disable their texting ability after 10 p.m.

Lack of sleep issue solved.

[Blue_Adept]

36. Bullshit

And you should be able to tell that from what you see elsewhere in this topic with what the kids are dealing with.

[cherokeeprogressive]

42. Raised two. My phone bills indicated they were texting at all hours of the night. Sometimes til 5.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

33. I had a 3 hour biology/chemistry lab starting at 7 am, once a week.

It went from 7 to 10 am and we missed homeroom. This was a two hour, 2 credit course in Bio I and Chem I with 2 teachers. It was hell getting up that early. My parents drove me to school because the bus didn't go near my house and it was about 2 miles away, with busy streets, in post-war suburbia.

I came home and crashed every afternoon for 3 hours, from 4:30 to 7:30 pm, because I was exhausted. Kids aren't supposed to be that tired, but I have a dead thyroid (autoimmune disease) that started in junior high when I was pre-adolescent. So I needed lots of sleep. I ate, slept, went to school, did homework, went to orchestra rehearsals and practiced my two instruments at home. Took two music lessons every Saturday from my teacher. I would not have been able to do any activities immediately after school since I had to get my nap.

On weekends I slept until noon.

Bosses and teachers will do anything to blame you for something they won't recognize as illness. The teachers had the gall to call me "slow" and "lazy". I wasn't lazy, I was SICK.

[BrotherIvan]

37. That is an unknown illness even to most doctors

Hope you found a good one to work with you. I know exactly what you're saying, but I didn't figure it out until a few years ago. To me a nap always meant at least three hours.