Another point to be made regarding sleep deprivation of teens and its effect on
school performance is that with later start times, students might perform better on
assessments. When the brain is allowed time to wake up fully, the memory centers as
well as other areas required for cognitive function are better able to process and handle
the task at hand. More sleep might lead to a greater ability to think things over, better
classroom performance, and higher test scores.
The issue of school start times is very complicated. It is a problem that is not
easily solved due to a multitude of factors involved in the equation, including bus and
athletic scheduling conflicts. Many argue that later high school start times would
conflict with middle school start times and require more busses, costing the school
district money. Why not simply reverse the bus schedules? Pick up the youngest kids -who get up early anyway -- first, then proceed to pick up older children, ending with
high school students at around 9:00.
To the issue of athletic schedules, I would argue that some athletes could get up
earlier and attend morning practices. This change might even result in a more efficient
use of school sports facilities, which are always at a premium after school. The main job
of