*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on PsychCentral.
A new study adds to the growing evidence that students experience several benefits from later school start times.
The findings reveal that, after a Colorado school district changed to later start times, students in middle and high school got more sleep at night, were less likely to feel too sleepy to do homework and were much more engaged with their work.
“Biological changes in the circadian rhythm, or internal clock, during puberty prevents teens from falling asleep early enough to get sufficient sleep when faced with early school start times,” said principal investigator Lisa J. Meltzer, Ph.D., an associate professor of pediatrics at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado.
“This study provides additional support that delaying middle and high school start times results in increased sleep duration for adolescents due to later wake times.”
For the study, the researchers observed students from Cherry Creek School District in Greenwood Village, Colorado. In fall 2017, the district delayed school start times for middle school by 50 minutes (changing from 8 a.m. to 8:50 a.m.) and for high school by 70 minutes (changing from 7:10 a.m. to 8:20 a.m.).
Results show that one year after the change, self-reported sleep on school nights was 31 minutes longer among middle school students and 48 minutes longer among high school students.
The study involved more than 15,000 students in grades 6-11 who completed online surveys during school hours before the start time change in spring 2017 and after the start time change in spring 2018. The survey included questions asking about weekday and weekend bedtime, wake time and total sleep time; sleepiness during homework; and academic engagement.
The researchers found that the percentage of students who reported feeling too sleepy to do their homework declined after the school start time delay from 46% to 35% among middle school students and from 71% to 56% among high school students.
Scores on a measure of academic engagement were significantly higher after the start time change for both middle school and high school students.
“The study findings are important because getting enough sleep is critical for adolescent development, physical health, mood, and academic success,” said Meltzer.
The research abstract appears in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented in San Antonio at SLEEP 2019, the 33rd annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).
Source: PsychCentral
https://psychcentral.com/news/2019/06/08/teens-get-more-sleep-feel-more-engaged-when-school-starts-later/147667.html
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