The UK Health Care Good Samatarian Sleep Center in Lexington, Kentucky conducted an experiment on how sleep affects the number of car accidents which teens are involved in on their way to school early in the morning. In a county in Kansas, the group took a poll of the teen driving accidents during a two year period when the high school started at 7:30 and the middle school started at 8:00. Then the county pushed the school starting times back one hour, and for the next two years the group carefully observed the number of teen driving accidents. The observers found that the crash rates decreased 16.5% compared to the years when school started earlier. Students also reported they felt fresher and more awake at school. Scientists believe that just one more hour of sleep significantly helps these teens to be safer and more alert in school and on the road. I also believe that a little more sleep would greatly benefit students who are not able to get enough and in the long run it will help them do better in school.
High School Students With A Delayed School Start Time Sleep Longer, Report Less Daytime Sleepiness:
Zaw W. Htwe, MD, of Norwalk Hospital's Sleep Disorders Center in Norwalk, Conn. conducted an experiment on 250 high school students who completed the School Sleep Habits Questionnaire. The first thing they discovered was that the average sleep time of these students was seven hours a night, because their school started at 7:35. After the school time was delayed forty minutes, the average sleep time for school nights increased 33 minutes, to 7 and a half hours of sleep a night. Although this is not the recommended nine hours of sleep that adolescents should be getting, but students reported having less trouble with being sleepy at school. One doctor observed that the students were using 83% of the added time to get more sleep. I believe that even the smallest amount of sleep is helpful and we should all always try to get as much sleep as we can to do our best.
Delayed School Start Time Associated With Improvements in Adolescent Behaviors:
Judith A. Owens, M.D., of the Hasbro's Childrens Hospital, Providence, conducted a study on 200 students in Providence ages 14-18. For the experiment, their school start time was pushed from 8:00 to 8:30 and they were interviewed before and after the change in starting times. Studies showed that most of the students on average were getting a full hour more of sleep and seemed to be more active and reported less depressive moods. There were significantly less reported incidents of medical concerns related to fatigue and students more actively participated in school activities and the majority rated themselves in happier moods. All this caused simply by delaying the school starting time half and hour. I firmly believe all of the statistics in this article and how even a little more sleep can change a student population. I think all schools should be striving to give their students more sleep, because it is so important to us.
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