CDC: School Starts Too Early In The Morning

The center recommends at least 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep per night, and that schools should start at 8:30 a.m.at the earliest.

The morning bell that starts the school day in the majority of U.S. middle and high schools rings way too early.

Bored and exhausted students during lesson.

“They are expected to be more on target and more focused and so sleep becomes more of an issue”. “We’re hoping in the coming years we’ll see a trend going in the other direction, but it will take time”. The proportion of students who fail to get sufficient sleep has remained steady since 2007.

Implementing a few steps ahead of time will make the transition from summer freedom to school much smoother.

Whyte clearly remembers waking up at 6 am as a high school student in Maryland to catch the desegregation bus across the county to his school, which started at 7:45 am.

“This has been going on forever, and kids have been graduating from school and going on to college”, Domenech confides.

But a new study shows that many U.S. public schools start their classes too early, raising the risks for poor academic performances and health problems of students, authorities said on Thursday.

The academy recommends schools start later than 8:30 a.m.to help prevent teens from becoming chronically sleep-deprived and exhausted.

Hawaii, Mississippi and Wyoming are the states that provide the most hindrance to students trying to get a good night’s sleep.

The new information released Friday says that only 10 percent of Indiana public middle and high schools meet that recommendation.

The average nationwide start-time is of 8:03 A.M., which is still too early for them to perform at their highest capability and, thus, unlock their full potential. AAP recommended that “middle and high schools should aim for a starting time of no earlier than 8:30 a.m”.

But some school districts are taking action.

And why is this a health issue? But because of adolescents’ sleep rhythms they can not fall asleep before 23:00, academy researchers noted. “This is how they are wired”.

It’s that latter factor that the authors hope can be mitigated through persuasive messaging from health providers who regularly interact with school-age children and their parents. Many bus drivers pick up both elementary and high school kids in the morning, and the longer those drivers are out on the road – which they would be if start times were changed – the more they have to be paid.

Other steps that can improve sleep in teens include setting regular bedtimes and waking times (even on weekends), and removing technologies, such as computers, video games and mobile phones, from teens’ bedrooms.

“The inner clock that drives the sleep-wake cycle tends to push the natural bed time later and later as a child progresses through adolescence”, said Dan Flanders, MD, a Toronto pediatrician and director of Kindercare Pediatrics.