Auto accidents, poorer grades, obesity, insulin resistance, sports injuries, immune functioning, risk-taking, substance abuse - all of these are influenced by whether our teens obtain enough sleep every night. Research from the 90's discovered a shift in circadian rhythm that occurs during puberty. Adolescents don't release melatonin until approximately 90 minutes later than the rest of us. This 'phase delay' has been measured (via saliva samples) in adolescents around the world - so it's a phenomenon of puberty, not American culture or schedules. Unfortunately current American school schedules conflict with this shift. Teens find it bio-chemically difficult, if not impossible, to fall asleep before 11pm - regardless of what time the morning alarm is set. Adolescents require 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep, and considering that most Portage County teens get up around 6am on school days the math isn't good. Sleep deprivation is known to contribute to a myriad of physical and cognitive problems - sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious. The latest research is on the strong links between sleep deprivation and sports injuries and obesity.
The Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, the National Sleep Foundation, Brown University, and others endorse the delay of school start times for adolescents. In 1993 the Minnesota Medical Association issued a resolution encouraging the elimination of early school start times. Within several years schools in Minneapolis and Edina changed start times. Researchers were there to gather pre-and post-data and the results were amazing. Despite the expectations that teens would stay up later the night before, the teens went to bed at the same time but slept later in the morning - obtaining, on average, five hours more sleep per week to the tune of improved grades, improved SAT scores, and improved behavior. In 1998 the five high schools in Fayette County, Kentucky changed from 7:30 am to 8:30 am and in the two years afterwards teen auto accidents in the county decreased by 24.3% when compared to the rest of the state. Other schools around the nation have responded and have experienced similar benefits - most obvious being improvements in grades and behavior.
The Hamilton Project (Brookings Institute) issued a report last year that provides a 'conservative' benefit to cost ratio estimate of 9 to 1 in delaying start times for teens by one hour. Economists who have explored this topic cite direct and indirect savings based on increased enrollment, decreased nurse and counselor visits, improved education which translates to increased future earnings, decreased health problems, and decreased auto accidents/sports injuries.
In Portage County there is a large group of professionals and parents asking our schools to consider the clinical data and national recommendations. The first step is merely for each school to form a committee to explore the topic - that's all - just form a committee. Every school superintendent in the county was provided with a summary of the clinical data and copies of letters from agencies including the Mental Health & Recovery Board, Townhall II, Gary Robinson & Associates, our Portage County Commissioners, and others.
Most schools find that once they examine the research the answer is obvious, however our schools often need a little encouragement from the community. To that end a petition was recently formed asking our schools to take that harmless step of forming 'school start time committees'.
We encourage you, our neighbors, to voice support for our youth and sign the petition: http://signon.org/sign/start-portage-county.fb23?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=6059954
- Stacy Simera, MSSA, LISW-S, SAP
References and for further information:
CAREI: Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, University of Minnesota, School Start Time Study (198-2001), available at www.education.umn.edu/CAREI/Reports
Danner, F, Phillips, B. Adolescent sleep, school start times, and teen motor vehicle crashes. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 2008: 4:533-5
Hamilton Project: Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments. Available at: http://www.hamiltonproject.org/files/downloads_and_links/092011_organize_jacob_rockoff_paper.pdf
The National Sleep Foundation, www.sleepfoundation.org
Start School Later, national non-profit advocacy group, www.startschoollater.net
I am questioning the "why now"? I dont think this is so much to do with the data in the article. I think it's more to do with tv, computer, internet, cell phones, social media and all the stimulation WE give to our kids cuz we love them. Why try to go to sleep when there is sooo much fun to be had? RE:" Auto accidents, poorer grades, obesity, insulin resistance, sports injuries, immune functioning, risk-taking, substance abuse - all of these are influenced by whether our teens obtain enough sleep every night". wow. if the teens just get enough sleep we have solved ALL their problems and ours, too, as parents. Didnt we hear that about certain vitamins or exercise or eating dinner together as a family? How in the world did people get an education for all these centuries with the sleep patterns that couldn't have just developed in the last 30 years? As I don't have teens anymore, I'm all for any insanity anyone wants to inflict on their kids in place of telling them to "go to sleep NOW".
As I said: my kids are grown. Yes, I noticed my kids had different sleep patterns. But we adapted. The kid that preferred later nights took himself a little nappy if needed. My home adjusted: I didnt expect the world to adapt to my kids. I do not for one second believe we can blame all these other ailments on children not getting the sleep suggested in the studies. I remember back in the day when a study came out that said chicken soup was a myth and had no medicinal affect. Then a study came out a few years later that said it wasn't a myth after all. In the 90s is when BIG technology hit and was made affordable for many homes. Computers, cable tv, and cell phones. How many teens have ALL of those in their bedrooms behind closed doors? Why not now? No reason. Now's as good a time as any, I guess. If changing the school start time will rid our world of: "Auto accidents, poorer grades, obesity, insulin resistance, sports injuries, immune functioning, risk-taking, substance abuse " by all means, please, please change the school start time.
Agricultural work is considered more hazardous than non-agricultural occupations, and experts say the risk is increased among young workers. I graduated from Rootstown in 1987, and I had classmates that got up an hour or two before the rest of us to do their farm chores. When I've talked to city folk in Akron and Dayton and Columbus on this topic they are surprised that I include research on farming, but I've also talked to country folk like me in Ashtabula, Canton and Athens and this is an important topic - in fact slide number 97 in my PowerPoint includes the aforementioned quote from Chapman. For our kids still working farms, that's all the more reason our schools should start later. Here's a few good references: Chapman, LJ. Summary of NIOSH-Funded Research in Agriculture at University of Wisconsin. 2006. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/nas/agforfish/pdfs/app2-11.pdf Chapman LJ, Taveira AD, Newenhouse AC, Meyer RH, Josefsson KG. Causal factors in production agriculture injuries: working children and youth versus adults. In S. Kumar (Ed.) Advances in Occupational Ergonomics and Safety. Washington DC:IOS Press 1998:73-76 Meyers, J, Miles, J, Faucett, J, Janowitz, I, Tejeda, D, Weber, E, Smith, R, Garcia, L. (2002) Priority risk factors for back injury in agricultural field work: Vineyard ergonomics. Journal of Agromedicine, (1), 37-52