School Start Times for Adolescents

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School Start Times
Kevin Melly
2 March 2015
Re:School Start Times for Adolescents
Judith A. Owens
27 October 2014
School Start Times for Adolescents
Reba R. Taylor
27 October 2014
Adolescent Pedestrian Safety while Sleepy
David C. Schwebel
2 September 2014

2 March 2015
School Start Times
- Kevin Melly, President Emeritus
I am writing you after reading your September 2014 American Academy of Pediatrics study on later school start times. In addition to my interest in improving education, I am a father of three children of various ages and thus I found your research quite interesting.
One aspect of your research that I focused on is the wide-ages of the children/students your research analyzed. Specifically, your research mentions...
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I am writing you after reading your September 2014 American Academy of Pediatrics study on later school start times. In addition to my interest in improving education, I am a father of three children of various ages and thus I found your research quite interesting.
One aspect of your research that I focused on is the wide-ages of the children/students your research analyzed. Specifically, your research mentions children of middle school to high school; that could mean children of vastly different ages: from 11 years old to 19 years old. My question is does the lack of sleep affect these children equally? Without the benefit of research, I would say most would answer that question "no".
Your research showed that "...59% of middle school children and 87% of high school teens were not" getting enough sleep. In other words, the problem of lack of sleep gets worse as the child ages. Thus, it seems we should try and tackle this problem at the earliest age possible. Intuitively, it seems to me that longer sleep for younger children would have a better cost-benefit than for older children. For example, it seems logical that if we "train" our children to get the proper sleep at 11 years old than this will have a cumulative benefit as the child moves into high school age. A middle school child starting later in the morning will enjoy the benefits your research shows and there are cumulative benefits that when that child enters high school can thus be positively compounded even further. Conversely, a middle school student who starts school "too early", as defined by your research say pre-8:30am, will have compounding negatives that will hurt that student as they enter high school. Also, it seems plausible that the effect of lack of sleep on younger children will have an exponentially worse effect on this demographic than on older children. In short, assuming an "either / or" choice of a school district having the binary choice of starting the school day later for ONLY one of its schools: either middle school OR high school, as it cannot start both at a later time, it seems logical that the recommendation based solely on the information of this study (not taking into account the numerous other considerations a school district would have to weigh in making such a decision) should be to start the middle school later (post-8:30am) versus the high school.
Given school districts have finite resources, especially the transportation assets that play an important role in school start times, school districts considering changing school start times for high schools or middle schools would see longer term sustainable benefits with better cost vs. benefits if they start middle school start times later and high school start times earlier.
Regards,
Kevin Melly
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
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Conflict of Interest:
None declared.
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27 October 2014
Re:School Start Times for Adolescents
- Judith A. Owens, Director of Sleep Medicine
Thanks for your inquiry regarding the impact of delayed high school start times on elementary students. To my knowledge, there are no published papers, but an abstract has been published by my colleagues at Boston Univ (first author Rhoda Au) which showed minimal impact on the sleep duration of elementary students when a "flipped" schedule (flip HS and ES start times) was instituted; and in fact TV viewing was a more im...
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Thanks for your inquiry regarding the impact of delayed high school start times on elementary students. To my knowledge, there are no published papers, but an abstract has been published by my colleagues at Boston Univ (first author Rhoda Au) which showed minimal impact on the sleep duration of elementary students when a "flipped" schedule (flip HS and ES start times) was instituted; and in fact TV viewing was a more important predictor of sleep amounts than start times in these students! This is clearly an area which deserves further research; however, many school districts have rules regarding "civil twilight" violations, which basically means that little ones are not allowed to be waiting for the bus or coming home in the dark. Hope that helps!
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
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Conflict of Interest:
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27 October 2014
School Start Times for Adolescents
- Reba R. Taylor, retired, but substitute teach
- Other Contributors:
  none
For years, I have been a proponent of later start times for high school students. Having taught high school for over 30 years, I have seen students arrive between 7:15 and 7:40, and I have concluded that high school students are owls, not larks. In September, the Montgomery County (VA) school board began reviewing school start times and gathering information. They cited and included in email to the MCPS community links t...
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For years, I have been a proponent of later start times for high school students. Having taught high school for over 30 years, I have seen students arrive between 7:15 and 7:40, and I have concluded that high school students are owls, not larks. In September, the Montgomery County (VA) school board began reviewing school start times and gathering information. They cited and included in email to the MCPS community links to two articles from AAP publications. These articles are: "Let Them Sleep: AAP Recommends Delaying Start Times of Middle and High Schools to Combat Teen Sleep Deprivation" and "School Start Times for Adolescents". I know that for the last 10 to 20 years there has been much discussion about start times for high school and middle school students. I personally think that discussion on this topic increased regionally when Roanoke City Schools (VA) implemented new school start times in 2008. The Roanoke City School Board cited a study at the University of Minnesota. Throughout all of this, I frequently have wondered if there are any studies about the affect of early school times on elementary students. I wonder this, because I can imagine the reactions of parents vocally at SB meetings, written in letters to the editor, and discussed on social media. Ergo my questions to you are: Have there been any studies on the affects of early start times on elementary students? What are the affects on them academically, mentally, emotionally, and physically? What about their safety waiting for the school buses, walking to school, and entering the building that early? Finally, if there are studies available, would you please respond to this message with both tangible and virtual citations?
Thank you for your time.
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
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Conflict of Interest:
None declared.
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2 September 2014
Adolescent Pedestrian Safety while Sleepy
- David C. Schwebel, Professor & Associate Dean
Colleagues,
Thanks for a soundly-argued statement on delayed school start times for adolescents. I wholeheartedly agree. I am writing to add one more reason to the list: pedestrian safety. Especially relevant for adolescents who are not yet driving, the risk for pedestrian injury walking to school while sleepy is sharply elevated compared to the risk when rested. My laboratory has published work on the topi...
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Colleagues,
Thanks for a soundly-argued statement on delayed school start times for adolescents. I wholeheartedly agree. I am writing to add one more reason to the list: pedestrian safety. Especially relevant for adolescents who are not yet driving, the risk for pedestrian injury walking to school while sleepy is sharply elevated compared to the risk when rested. My laboratory has published work on the topic1 and continues to investigate it; to date, findings are consistently replicated.
David C. Schwebel, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean University of Alabama at Birmingham
Reference
1 Davis, A. L., Avis, K. T., & Schwebel, D. C. (2013). The effects of sleep restriction on adolescents' pedestrian safety in a virtual environment. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53, 785-790. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.07.008
Conflict of Interest:
None declared
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Conflict of Interest:
None declared.
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