Why School Should Start Later

 Do you know that starting school early has many health consequences, and most families can't meet their child's needs in the mornings? But there is a solution to this problem. Start school later. Starting school later will improve students' mental health. It will improve their physical health too.

School starting late has drastic effects on students' mental health. "[students who sleep longer will have] better student grades", according to the APA from sleepfoundation.org. That means that students who usually sleep longer will be more intelligent just by sleeping longer each day, which improves their mental abilities. Furthermore, the ill effects of depression may come as well when not sleeping long enough. Students who sleep longer will have much more positive effects on their lifestyle and mental health and will not suffer from depression. In addition, students who sleep less will more likely fall asleep in class and could miss something important. For example, if a student fell asleep while the teacher was talking about how to turn in an important test he or she would not know how to do it and potentially not receive the grade he or she deserves. This establishes the fact that not sleeping enough could lead to falling behind in school.

School starting later can also improve the physical health of the students. According to a legitimate study hosted by sleepfoundation.org, "one study showed a 16.5% decrease in the teenage crash rate after the school start time was pushed back one hour." Even though about 17% might not seem like a lot, it saves many lives. Ergo, students who sleep longer are brisker and prepared for the road and it will result in fewer injuries. Also, students who don't get enough sleep are likely to participate in unhealthy habits such as drinking, smoking, and illegal drug use. Therefore, students who sleep longer will not have any negative health issues and will not get addicted to harmful items. Lastly, students who sometimes don't get enough sleep are twice as likely to be overweight. Being overweight can cause many severe health problems, so school starting later will spare them from that.

Some people may say that students can sleep earlier in the night, but some students might not adjust to that biologically. Students also might not adjust to it since of all the homework and extracurricular activities they have to do. According to sleepfoundation.org "High school students also have more homework, late-night technology use,[extracurricular activities], and fewer parent-set bedtimes, all of which may cause students to stay up later than is appropriate for getting adequate sleep." Meaning that sleeping in the morning is usually more effective. Moreover, "the average teenager cannot fall asleep until 11:00 p.m. and would do best waking up at 8:00 a.m. or even later" according to sleepfoundation.org. Indirectly saying that school starting later in the morning is more useful biologically.

In conclusion, starting school later will boost the mental health of students. It'll also increase their physical well-being. School starting later is important because it affects everyone. The more the students feel good, so does everyone around them.