it’s a great idea in theory, but in practice it will not work.

i just recently finished my first semester in college and anybody who is in my position will tell you that what time they go to bed is variable depending on what time their class is in the morning. the earlier the class, the earlier you go to bed. on the flip side, the later the class, the later you stay up.

sure it may seem like you’re getting an extra hour of sleep, but in reality you’re getting the same amount of sleep because chances are you are going to bed later. it isn’t worth the effort rescheduling extracurricular activities such as sports and theater.

I have several problems with this argument.

One, as Alex Way said, “School starts an hour later, so it ends an hour later. If we assume that homework takes the same amount of time regardless of when school starts, then students will be getting to bed an hour later, thus completely negating the extra hour of sleep they may receive. ”

Two, your argument about more sleep improving grades doesn’t make sense. “… students who reported they were getting C’s, D’s, and F’s in school got about 25 minutes less sleep and went to bed 40 minutes later than students who reported that they were getting A’s and B’s. This leaves very little argument that an extra hour of sleep would have positive effects.”
Actually, it leaves a lot of room for argument. It is very possible that we’re mixing up cause and effect here. You assume that the effect is higher grades and the cause is sleep (meaning if you sleep more, you’ll get higher grades). I would actually argue that students whose grades aren’t as good have mediocre grades because they may be out late with friends instead of doing homework (thus negatively affecting their grades and stealing away precious sleep time). In my experience, academically stronger students are better at planning out how much time it takes them to do things and just… doing them. I would say that the cause is the higher grades and the effect is more sleep (meaning the stronger students plan their days better and then manage to get more sleep at the end of the day).

Three, in terms of the driving, if you choose to wake up at 7:00, drag yourself out to your car still in your pajamas, and start the ignition, you will be drowsy. However, if you wake up at 6:30, eat some breakfast, and brush your teeth, you will most likely be much less drowsy. The issue is not with the school, but with the individual. If you woke up at 10:00 on a weekend and drove right after you woke up, you’d also be drowsy.

Fourth, I personally have no problems with this system the way it is. A lot of times in the fall, I woke up at 5:30, went for a run, showered, ate breakfast, did my English homework, and watched videos on Youtube, all before going to school. I was wide awake by first block, ready for school. While I understand that my way of doing things is a bit… abnormal… I would argue that anyone can be awake and ready. You just have to, well, go to bed earlier.

Fifth, stop complaining and freaking sleep! I know you don’t do your homework until after dinner anyway. Sports don’t get out at 9:00!

Yeah… Well I just wanted to put emphasis on what Alex Way says. If schools were to be pushed back an hour, then we would have to end school later, and that then the children would still end up going to sleep 1 hour later, meaning that the change is meaningless. I prefer getting out at 2:15, because not only do we have more time, it is worth the extra early hour. What I like the best is that we CAN get up early. Plus, kids who seem to have sports and it causes a distraction, well simple answer: DON’T TAKE SPORTS! If it interefers with school time, then obviously sports are the problem. Also, STOP WHINING!

i could use a lot more sleep.
i find myself taking naps in the media center during school and falling asleep in class all the time.
i would LOVE the extra hour of sleep.
some people might say that since sports start later people will start homework later and eventually fall asleep later and it wont make a difference. but this is false. i would say a large percent of WHS students do not start their hw right when they get home, instead they do it after dinner and late at night. therefore, they will still start their hw at the same time and that will be “earlier” if you compare it to how much later after school they start.
WE NEED THE EXTRA HOUR OF SLEEP!

As a senior, this totally doesn’t effect me, but an extra hour of sleep would be awesome. I definitely do better on days when I have a free first and can sleep in.

I’m not entirely sure that moving school’s start time back an hour would give students more sleep time, as that assumes that students would get to sleep at the same time that they do normally, which I don’t think is a viable conclusion.

Think about it: School starts an hour later, so it ends an hour later. If we assume that homework takes the same amount of time regardless of when school starts, then students will be getting to bed an hour later, thus completely negating the extra hour of sleep they may receive.

I don’t think we can necessarily assume that students will get to bed at the same time if we push back the start/end time of school. While it may work in theory, this assumption is not one we can rely on.

The only way to get students to have an extra hour of sleep would be to somehow add an hour to the day.

sage

this is very interesting. i find that i do try and go to sleep asap. but what i also do hear from people is that they get home at around 3 and sit on the couch till around 7, eat dinner, then do HW. its not really the smartest thing to do.