Unless you were born with that “early morning riser” gene, most parents, and kids, would prefer to hit the snooze and get an extra hour or so sleep in the morning. I usually moan and groan when the alarm goes off but after a hot cup of joe and getting the blood flowing in my toes again, I’m normally bright-eyed and bushy tailed, ready to tackle whatever life throws my way. What about you? Do you agree with the findings in this article? Let us know in the comments section. We’d love to hear your take or how you react to the blaring of the alarm clock.
Source: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2015/08/us-schools-start-too-early-cdc-reports.html
As
any teenager will mumble from beneath the covers on Monday mornings, it's
too early.
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees.
In
a new report, the CDC says that middle and high schools in the country start too early. Five out of every six U.S.
middle and high schools start before 8:30 a.m., possibly leading to
insufficient time slept and academic struggles, and increases in health risks
and safety concerns.
"Getting
enough sleep is important for students' health, safety, and academic
performance," said Anne Wheaton, PhD., lead author and epidemiologist of
the CDC's Population Health division, in a press release. "Early school
start times, however, are preventing many adolescents from getting the sleep
they need."
This
isn't new territory. Previous research found teenagers need about 8.5 to 9.5
hours of sleep a night. According to the 2013Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance report, two out of three high
schoolstudents who have long commutes.)
students don't get that recommended amount, a statistic that's been
steady since 2007. As puberty sets in, adolescents experience a later release
of melatonin and an altered sleep drive that indicates "the average
teenager in today's society has difficulty falling asleep before 11:00 p.m. and
is best suited to wake at 8:00 a.m. or later." But with such early start
times, schools are making those precious eight to nine hours all the more
elusive. (Especially problematic for
Only
two states—Alaska and North Dakota—start after the recommended 8:30 a.m. start
time, LiveScience found. Iowa, Minnesota, and Florida
all have the next latest starting times sometime after 8:15 a.m. Louisiana has
the earliest average start time (7:40 a.m.) followed by Delaware, Connecticut,
New Hampshire, and Mississippi. Approximately 43 percent of the more than
18,000 public high schools in the U.S. start before 8 a.m., according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Schools in
suburban areas tend to start the earliest, at 7:51 a.m. on average, the 2012 Schools and Staffing Survey found, while
schools within cities start an average of 14 minutes later. Some schools have
even seen start times moved earlier in recent years.
But
changing the beginning of the school day can affect other aspects of life.
School athletics, student jobs, and family schedules all top the list of
barriers that would need to be adjusted for later school times,
according to a 2011 Brookings Institution report. But the same report suggests
that the positive effects of later start times on students' health could lead
to improved achievement, and thus, future economic gains.
Related
article:
So
what do you think? Are kids getting enough sleep these days? Are parents? How
do you react to the dream shattering tones of an early morning alarm clock? Let
us know! Keep up with us on Facebook
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