Push back school day start

As Matthew Walker, renowned sleep expert, shares; “Sleep is the greatest legal performance-enhancing drug that most people are probably neglecting.”

From my own experiences as a freshman in high school and a multiple-sport athlete, I find it really hard to complete my mountain of homework each night and still go to bed at a reasonable hour. After researching about school start times, it seems obvious that school starts way too early. I found that when one school shifted start times from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., average SAT scores rose 212 points. That is incredible! Think about how much productivity extra sleep would create for yourself and the rest of your school, with a simple change like this.

Although it’s all up to the student to go to bed at a reasonable hour, later school start times seems like the answer to many teenage struggles. Also, another study documented a school which shifted school start times from 7:35 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. - this resulted in 70% reduction in car crashes the following year. Overall, starting school at a later hour could increase students’ grades, productivity, and sometimes even safety.

Reese Walker

Spokane