The alarm goes off, the snooze button is hit… it goes off once more. Struggling to arise out of bed and begin the groggy day, it’s time to face the music.
I am no stranger to battling my alarm clock and dreading the warmth and comfort vacuum which powers on by leaving bed. For many students, it can be quite challenging to get up in the morning and start the school day. With school starting 5 minutes earlier this year than previous years, it is nearly impossible to get the correct amount of sleep. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), teenagers ages 13-18 should sleep eight to ten hours per night.
Last year, there were conversations to implement a later start time for the 2023-24 school year, allowing students to get the recommended amount of sleep. With that, school would start at 9 a.m. with the possibility of a virtual first hour. However, with the retirement of Northview’s previous superintendent, Dr. Scott Korpak, those discussions veered in a different direction.
Though a later start time would have been ideal for students and staff, logistics issues caused by the time change could not be solved.
Principal Mark Thomas was involved in the conversation regarding the struggle to get the community and schools all on board with a later start time.
“[The discussions] didn’t sit well with everyone,” Thomas said. “Most parents rely on school to be aligned with their work day.”
Thomas knows that the starting times both now and in the past, make it a struggle for students to get the correct amount of sleep. But adjusting school start times has proven to be an extremely difficult task.
“There’s a lot of research that talks about the fact that older teenagers do better when they sleep in but then shifting the system of course is another situation,” Thomas said. “When it comes to [activities] after school, transportation to school, parents having to work and drop their kids off, it’s really more of a transformational challenge.”
Starting school at a later time may be a difficult adjustment for both parents and the school system, however, the well-being of students should be the top priority. With most schools starting before 8:30 in the morning, the odds of students receiving the correct amount of sleep are slim to none.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) shares the difficulties surrounding proper amounts of sleep with schools starting before 8:30 a.m.
“Several studies from different perspectives indicate that adolescent sleep needs do not decline from preadolescent levels, and optimal sleep for most teenagers is in the range of 8.5 to 9.5 hours per night,” AAP said. “On a practical level, this research indicates that the average teenager in today’s society has difficulty falling asleep before 11 p.m. and is best suited to wake at 8 a.m. or later.”
At Northview High School classes start [for most students] at 7:25 a.m. and 8:25 a.m. on Wednesdays. Wednesdays have grown to be my favorite day of the school week because of the extra hour of sleep allotted.
Junior Emilie Veeneman is unhappy with the new start times and wishes the discussions went back to solving the logistics issues that prevented implementing a later start this year.
“I think it’s [new start times] awful because it messed up my entire schedule,” Veeneman said. “I am also upset that they’re [the school] not doing the nine o’clock start times that they talked about.”
Though the later start times may be a challenge to put in place, it is worth the strain in order to better the mental and physical health of students in Northview.
