More Sleep for Carlsbad High School students

While teens have known this for a long time, recent studies have begun to show that teens have irregular sleep patterns which are caused by biological factors and need to be accommodated by their schedules. These sleep patterns are regularly disturbed by the time that they are required to wake up. Teenagers need from 8 and one-half to 9 and one-half hours of sleep per night.

The vast majority do not receive this amount. It is biologically normal for teenagers to have trouble falling asleep before 11:00. On a schedule where they got to bed at 10:00, a teenager would have to wake up at 7:00 to get the recommended 9 hours of sleep. One might argue that a student could wake up at 7:00, since school starts at 7:30, however there are many things that a student has to do in the morning. These include eating breakfast, picking out clothes for the day, packing a lunch, packing athletic gear, filling up a water bottle, checking that all school supplies are packed, and brushing teeth. Students who take showers in the morning, ride their bikes, or walk to school need to wake up even earlier. Some wake up at 6:00 or before. Even with a bed time of 10:00, that is only 8 hours of sleep. So on a good day, teenagers still do not get enough rest time. The following is a quote from the National Sleep Foundation website discussing the results of their study concerning teenage sleep patterns.

"The National Sleep Foundation's 2006 Sleep in America poll found that America's adolescents (6th-12th grade) are not getting the sleep they need, and this lack of sleep gets worse as they progress through their teen years. According to our study -

* Just one in five adolescents get an optimal nine hours of sleep on school nights; nearly one-half (45%) sleep less than eight hours on school nights.
* More than half of adolescents report feeling too tired or sleepy during the day.
* More than half of adolescents say they know they get less sleep than they need to feel their best.
* Nine out of 10 parents believe their adolescent is getting enough sleep at least a few nights during the school week, leaving an "awareness gap" between parents and teens."
-http://www.sleepfoundation.org/alert/how-improve-your-teens-sleep-habits

This article describes the effects of pushing back school start times in Minnesota from 7:15 to 8:40. A study of the results of this action shows that students experienced:

"* less likelihood of experiencing depressed moods;
* reduced likelihood for tardiness;
* reduced absenteeism;
* better grades;
* reduced risk of fall asleep car crashes; and
* reduced risk of metabolic and nutritional deficits associated with insufficient sleep, including obesity."

-http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/school-start-time-and-sleep