Sleep Over Study? How One Hour More Could Change Your School Day.
By Isaac Cook
Ever wished you had an extra hour in bed? Well it’s possible that it could be more than just a dream!
According to various studies conducted in schools in England, starting at 10am, instead of the usual 8:30 or 9, showed that students were more aware in lessons and were, over a longer period, resulted in significantly higher grades.
This relatively minor change could bring in far more positive results than otherwise thought and that schools should consider the option more openly. British schoolchildren are the sixth most sleep-deprived in the world, outlining the need for change.
Unlike adults, teenagers are naturally inclined to wake up between 9 and 10am. Students are not able to work optimally in the times that school starts. This issue is apparent with students providing a subpar standard of work and even sleeping in lessons.
There was a petition that ran from August to February that was about how schools should start at 10 am. This petition drew a lot of attention with over 180000 people singing in favour, eventually leading to a parliament debate on the topic. Unfortunately this debate ended in nothing but with the statement that the times that school starts is dependent on the school itself.
This reinforces how this is not just the minority speaking and that this would be a popular change with the people and also that it is up to us and the schools to make this change together.
To conclude, the start times that we have now, whilst they are okay, they are not optimised for teenagers’ natural sleep times and thus could be changed to increase performance and attention in lessons. And we know that it works as numerous case studies have been carried out all with the same result.