No Rest for the Committed

It’s time to face a truth we’ve been avoiding. School starts too early. There is no way around that fact. The standard start time in the MPS system for high school is 8:05. As one moves into the suburbs the start time progressively gets earlier. With a start time usually around 7:30, most students are required to wake up far too early. It’s unproductive, unhealthy and frankly, unnecessary. “Just go to bed earlier” school board members or frustrated teachers will say to tired teens. Easier said than done. A 1995 Stanford study established the now commonly known fact that teens actually can’t. As teens grow their hormonal changes shift their bodies’ circadian rhythms. This is our biological clock that sends signals telling humans when we’re tired and when we’re not. The flood of melatonin won’t hit until around 11 or 11:30 at night. This means most kids can’t get the recommended 8 to 10 hours of sleep. Most struggle to get 6. The American Academy of Pediatrics explains that because of their changing rhythms, teens should be going to bed around 11 p.m. and waking up at 8 or 9 am. A 2011 study found that the average teen sleeps 6.9 hours nightly. Much less than the recommended 10 hours. There is a slew of research pointing to the negative effects of sleep deprivation. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has shown that sleep deprivation is often associated with dozens of issues. The list of health issues reads like a bad medicine’s side effects. They include being overweight or obese, increased risk of depression, harder time focusing for longer periods, lower school performance, increased truancy and dropout rates, poor impulse control and a higher risk of suicide. If that doesn’t concern you, you might as well stop reading. Those are just the confirmed health detriments. That doesn't even include the social pressures. Something parents and educators often forget is the fact that teenagers have more than just school. Athletics, activities and socialization have to fit in somewhere. To make my point, I will use my schedule as an example. It is not the busiest but certainly not the least busy either, and should illustrate the challenges we face in today’s apathetic world. I have to wake up at 6 to get ready for school that day. Then school goes from 7:20 to 2:30. There is little time in the day to relax, and none to sleep. Then in the afternoon, I have a mere 45 minutes for rest or homework. That is, if none of the three clubs I partake in have meetings. I swim from roughly 3 until 6 pm. By the time I get home, shower and eat it is already 7:30 pm. I spend at least 2 hours on homework and projects. This is assuming I don’t have to go to my job. By now it is 9:30. I should be in bed. Am I? No. It’s simply not possible to accomplish everything I need to. If I am working, doing activities for a club, or have an especially large homework assignment, I can’t get to bed until 11:00 or later. Besides, I'm not even tired. Nor am I alone in this situation. My schedule is just an example of what millions of teens experience with similar issues every day. How is a teen expected to develop relationships with friends if they are given no time outside of school to do so? Late-night Kwik Trip runs?-Finished. Gaming with friends?-No time. Spending time with a significant other?-Out of the question. With so little time why even bother trying to get a job? It’s not like college tuition is at an all-time high making lifelong debt near-impossible to avoid. The fact of the matter is that teens need more sleep because we lead busy lives. Everyone knows this, science confirms it, but we do nothing. Why? Have older generations simply grown detached as the cold reality of their career sets in? Are they ignoring health issues because it is cheaper and easier for them? Perhaps, but one reason is for sure. In order to understand why change has yet to happen to match the plethora of science, we must first define a physics term. Inertia: A tendency for a body to oppose any force that attempts to change or move it. Principal Michael Vuolo of Franklin when asked why high school doesn't start later responded, “ No one opposes a later start time. The problem is getting people to change.” This makes sense. By now, the research is not novel, and the effects are being felt. The biggest inhibitor is adherence to tradition. The school board, parents and workplaces have been conditioned to think that school must be like that. Believing things should stay the way they are because it has always been that way is dangerous. We live at a crossroads when mental health is finally getting the attention it needs, and change is possible. Science tells us we need to sleep later. Logistical challenges with busing can be worked around. It may pose a financial burden, but is money really more valuable than millions of childrens’ health? Other logistical issues can certainly be worked around. That is what a school board and school administration are for, after all. It seems to any careful eye, that the primary reason for the burden on our sleep is inertia. To change this malfeasance, we teenagers need the help of parents. If there is any certainty in school life, it is that parental complaint spurs change. Should parents band together, formulate plans with administration and students, and implement change, we could begin a force of positive change. It will take work, determination and grit, but think of the children. We will be happier and healthier. Are teenagers actually always moody, sleepy and reckless? Or are they just sleep-deprived? Let’s find out.