Ask any teenager and they will tell you they hate getting up early to go to school. They would much rather hit the snooze button and put off homework, textbooks and teachers for another half an hour. Well according to a new study, they should – and it would actually help them perform better in class!
Researchers in the US studied kids at a boarding school where classes started at 8am and then later changed to 8:30am:
“Of course, the switch to a later start time made students feel less sleepy. More specifically, the percentage of students who got less than seven hours of sleep per night fell from 34% before to 7% after, while the percentage of students who got at least eight hours of sleep jumped from 16% to 55%.”
Interestingly, the later starts saw many students actually getting to sleep earlier as well – they liked the feeling of extra sleep so much they made an effort to go to bed earlier than usual. Extra sleep also helped minimise (some of) their teenage angst:
“When school began at 8 a.m., 66% of students reported feeling “somewhat unhappy or depressed.” After delaying the first bell until 8:30, that figure fell to 45%. Likewise, the percentage of students who said they felt “irritated or annoyed” fell from 84% to 63%.”
As well as improving the overall mood and attention span of the kids, the extra half an hour sleep had some positive impact on their marks. The study suggested that an even later start would have a more significant effect on student performance. And surprisingly, teachers at the school were behind the move, with one teacher telling researchers:
“On a more personal note, I have found the 8:30 start to be the single most positive impact to my general quality of life at [the school] since I started 12 years ago.”
Sleepio thinks starting school later is a great idea – anything to prevent moody teenagers!
Read more – “School day starts too early for sleepy students (and teachers), researchers say“
Posted in Interesting..., Sleep in Culture | Tagged: sleep, Sleep News, students
