The American Academy of Pediatricians recommends middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to combat chronic lack of sleep among adolescents. None of the two dozen public high schools in the Lansing area start that late. Neither do most of the area’s middle schools. School administrators who spoke to the State Journal agreed: current school start times don’t reflect the research on the sleep habits of teens and the impact lack of sleep has. “We have got to think more judiciously about high school start times,” said Lansing Superintendent Yvonne Caamal Canul. Busing, the scheduling of regional programs and after-school activities are among the challenges administrators see to making changes to start times. Failing to do so comes with potential consequences, according to Kimberly Fenn, a psychology professor at Michigan State University. Impacts from lack of sleep range problems staying attentive and struggles with short- and long-term memory to a reduced feeling of fullness when eating and a hankering for fatty foods. “When you’re sleep deprived, you don’t crave apples and carrots sticks, you crave pizza and cheeseburgers,” Fenn said. In a 2013 study, researchers at the University of Minnesota looked at seven high schools in Minnesota that pushed back start times, including two in the South Washington County School District that delayed the state of school from 7:35 a.m. to 8:35 a.m. South Washington students fared better on standardized test scores after the delay. The number of students who attended class more than 90% of the time also increased, and with it, their grade point averages improved. Ryan Hicks, a junior at Lansing’s Everett High School, knows the struggle of lack of sleep first-hand. School starts at Everett at 7:25 a.m. Most nights, Hicks doesn’t feel tired until 11 p.m. He stays up later some nights doing homework for his two advanced placement classes. Hicks said he notices it’s harder to stay focused and get the most out of class the next morning when that happens. Hicks recently wrote an opinion piece for his school paper questioning the existing schedule. “It’s down to the fact that schools definitely start really early,” Hicks said. Lansing did push back the start time at several of its middle schools this year with the rollout of district-wide busing, saving $1 million by adding an extra round of bus routes. Starting two hours later on Wednesdays — when teachers have professional development — helps, Hicks said. Still, he hopes officials seriously consider moving the opening bell back, the closer to 8:30 a.m., the better. Liam Brockey, an MSU professor who has two daughters attending East Lansing High School, has been making the case for later start times for three years. His youngest, Leonor Brockey, suffers from migraines, which are more likely to strike when she doesn’t wake up at the same time every day. On the weekends, when most teens catch up on their sleep, it means she has to wake up at 6 a.m. or risk the consequences. “It’s upsetting to have to do that, but if I let her sleep in she’ll have a migraine later in the day,” Brockey said. Beyond his daughter's situation, Brockey said he wants teenage students to get the most out of their classes. One idea Brockey supports is flipping the start times of elementary and high schools — allowing older students to sleep later into the morning. Fenn said physiology backs that idea up. Preteen children are considered phase advanced, meaning they tend to feel sleepy in time with the setting of the sun. They go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Once puberty kicks in, feelings of tiredness are delayed. “A lot of times, parents or teachers think children are going to bed later due to screen time — TV or video games — when really, their internal rhythm is telling them they are tired later,” Fenn said. Teens don’t typically feel tired until between 10 p.m. and midnight, Fenn said. When you consider that they should be getting eight to 10 hours of sleep per night, and that most wake up between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. for school, the math doesn’t add up. Teens, as well as many adults, suffer from a form of sleep deprivation known as sleep restriction, which happens when people don’t get enough nightly rest for several days in a row. That lost sleep time carries over as sleep debt, Fenn said. And while teens catch up on their rest by sleeping in on the weekends, many researchers believe you can never fully repay sleep debt. Conversations about start times have cropped up in recent years, said Scott Koenigsknecht, superintendent of the Ingham Intermediate School District. Koenigsknecht has his share of concerns with changing schedules. Student-athletes who leave school in the afternoon to attend sporting events would likely miss more time if the school day went longer. Families that let their children walk to elementary school would have to make transportation adjustments if they were concerned about them doing so in the dark. Despite those potential issues, Koenigsknecht said the ISD will comply with local districts if they want to make changes to schedules. “If it’s something our locals wanted to implement, we would rally and respond and provide the excellent services we do.” Source
