Vroom 1

Sean Vroom

Mrs. Thomas

UWRT 1103 - 020

12 April 2018

Thesis Paper Draft 1

College students are often are faced with many different ways of how they spend their

time. Students often try to maximize their time in college by putting themselves out there to

better themselves in addition to balancing their academic life. When students get to college they

have a large variety of choosing how they spend time during their day, such as things like

classes, extracurricular clubs, or part time jobs. A lot of this choosing can revolve around when a

student takes their classes. This leads to the question of can morning classes create a successful

environment for college students?

On the surface, many people can come up with ideas or reasons why they feel that having

morning classes is a good or bad idea. Some of these reasons why people might say that having

morning classes can be a bad ideas is the night owls, who stay up late at night doing homework

or hanging out with friends. These people, who go to bed later than the average people will often

not be able to get up in the morning to make it to an early class. In addition, to this benefit, I feel

that classes in the afternoon or later part of the day can also be helpful to those students who wait

until the morning to do their assignments as they didn’t have an assignment due until two o’clock

in the afternoon they could spend an adequate amount of time working on the assignment to

complete it well reather throwing it together the last minute before it is due,
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Morning classes can also offer many potential benefits for students. One of these many

benefits can include more time in the afternoon for other things such as extracurricular clubs or

other activities. In addition, more time in the afternoon means that many students can take the

chance in the afternoon for them to complete their assignments for their classes, perhaps

allowing them do to better in school. For students who commute to there campus there is perhaps

a benefit in finding parking for those student who have classes in the morning, as a student’s

whose class might not be until 2 O’Clock in the afternoon they will likely not need to be on

campus as early as someone who has a class at 9.

Many studies have been done in an attempt to find the most optimal class start time for

many students, not only in college but also in second and primary school. Reports of the

potential effects and benefits of morning classes have also been observed. This is what I will be

using to be able to prove or disprove my hypothesis of morning classes creating an effective

environment of college students.

With the time that students who prefer morning class, spend in the morning, they can gain

more time in the afternoon . James E. Porter, the President of StressStop.com and a professor at

Miami University in the English Department, shares information this his article, The Benefits of

Going To Bed and Getting Up Early, on the HuffingPost news website, that in the morning there

are often fewer distractions, which allow him to properly focus on things that he needs to get

done. He makes a reference to Steven Covey’s well known book The Seven Habits of Highly

Effective People that uninterrupted blocks of time are the most productive and are well used

periods of time for many people throughout the day. In his writing he mentions many well known

leaders such as Benjamin Franklin, who was fond of the idea: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes
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a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”. In addition, Porter states that going to bed and getting up

helps you body create a Circadian Rhythm, or a body's natural clock. Establishing this cycle can

help one to be able to create a schedule and be more productive throughout the day.

College students, often have many things on their plate all at once, including class,

homework, studying, work, and other extracurricular activities, they must be able to make the

most out of their every day. This making the most of everyday involves a high precisions of

productivity. Stephanie Vozza, is a writer who specializes in business productivity and the author

of Why The Most Productive People Do These Six Things Every Day. At the top of her list for the

things that these productive people do is that people get up and have a routine. She gives an

example from Serial, a networking system company, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, Vozza said

he “wakes up at 6 a.m. every day and follows the same routine. “I start my day by consuming

quite a lot of information,” he writes”. This idea of getting up early to have a routine is a

supporting the idea of having a set schedule to make a productive environment.

I agree with Porter and Vozza’s claims about the importance and the many of the benefits

that are associated with those who go to bed and night and get up at an early time to start their

day, as it can create a period of time that allows people to be more productive. In addition Porter

and Vozza also provide many well known peoples that claim much of their fame us from the fact

that they decide to make to most that they can from their everyday by getting up early.

An article that was written by Mariah Evans, Paul Kelley ad Jonathan Kelley who are

researchers at the University of Nevada Reno, in Sociology, Sleep, Applied Statistics, and

Memory Neuroscience programs there. In this study the researchers used two approaches in

determining start times for the students as the university that can be optimized for undergraduate
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students. The data was collected from the survey based methods and then analyzed through

graphical and empirical means. According to researcher Mariah Evans, "The basic thrust is that

the best times of day for learning for college-age students are later than standard class hours

begin,". It was noted that in this survey that that from Neuroscientists in this experiment that for

many high school student and college freshmen and sophomores that their “natural day” begins

approximately two hours later than the optimal day start time for adults at 9:00 a.m. In the survey

a questions asked its participates to categorize themselves as “morning” or “evening” people.

The results showed that the “evening” people outnumbered the “morning” people by 2:1. Mariah

Evans stated the following when it comes to best start class times for students "The survey we

present here support that for college students, but they also show that when it comes to optimal

performance, no one time fits all.". This piece of data from associate professor of sociology at

the University of Nevada, Reno can show that there is no one best start time to fit every

individual who is in college.

The results from this experiment can go to state that there is no one set time that the

brains of college students are best wired. This experiments data was also collected from a

survey’s data, the sample of this survey provided by the University of Nevada, Reno data was

likely in to form of an optional response, were to survey was no a hundred percent random, as

likely only those students who wanted to take it took it.

Predicting School Achievement: The Role of Inductive Reasoning, Sleep Length and

Morningness–Eveningness is a research article from Dr. Juan Francisco, Dr. Díaz-Morales, and

Cristina Escribano. In this experiment information was to be tested and observed from students

on what type of class time environment that they learned best in. In the experiment there were
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two sample groups. One of the sample groups had classes run in the morning and be finished by

noon, the other sample group had classes run in the afternoon and be finished by early evening

(around 5:00 p.m.). The students were evaluated on two tests, the first test was a test of the

students inductive reasoning, on a standardized test (test used was PMA-R test), and academic

performance test or a students GPA. The results from the experiment on the students states

“These results show that a typical student will achieve the greatest scores on a standardized test

at night rather than the morning, but will achieve a greater academic performance or a higher

GPA in the morning.”. This environment in time shows that on standardized test students will

often perform better toward the later-afternoon or evening part of the day, while a student’s GPA

test to be better when they are taking classes at the earlier part of the day, than in the afternoon.

The results of the experiment can relate back to the hypothesis of morning classes

creating a successful environment for students. From the data provided by Juan Francisco,

Díaz-Morales, and Cristina Escribano there is evidence to show that those students who take

class in the morning will tend to have a higher GPA, providing success in college, while those

students who take classes in the evening will have a greater tendency to be more successful on

standardized tests.

The studies and experiences observed have led to the conclusion that morning classes

create a successful environment for its students. James Porter and Stephanie Vozza have argued

that getting up in the morning to being you day can prove to be beneficial in time management

and productivity, by using several examples from Stephen Covey, and Benjamin Franklin.

Mariah Evans, Paul Kelley and Jonathan Kelley where against the idea of morning classes, but

my analysis can show their finds to possibly be inaccurate. The studies provided by Dr. Juan
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Francisco, Dr. Díaz-Morales, and Cristina Escribano were that students tended to have a higher

GPA if they were enrolled in morning classes, rather than night classes. In conclusion, morning

classes can create a successful environment for students given that those students enrolled in

them tend to be more productive throughout the day, maintain a higher GPA, and achieve other

benefits by taking morning classes.

Morning classes are something that is thought to be avoided at all costs, due to need for

college students to sleep in and start their day later. Of course, this idea does represent some, but

might not represent the majority. This information that I was able to find, is able to give evidence

on some of the positive effects of morning classes on students.

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Works Cited

Francisco, Juan, et al. “Predicting School Achievement: The Role of Inductive Reasoning, Sleep

Length and Morningness–Eveningness.” Personality and Individual Differences,

Pergamon, 19 Mar. 2013,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886913000809?via%3Dihub.

Porter, James E. “The Benefits Of Going To Bed Early And Getting Up Early.” The Huffington

Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Mar. 2017,

www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-benefits-of-going-to-bed-early-and-getting-up-early_

us_58d11373e4b0e0d348b3478a.

University of Nevada, Reno. "College students study best later in the day, study shows: Students

learn more effectively between 11 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. than at other times of the day."

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 April 2017.

<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170412105913.htm>.

Vozza, Stephanie. “Why The Most Productive People Do These Six Things Every Day.”Fast

Company, Fast Company, 19 Jan. 2017,

www.fastcompany.com/3066982/why-the-most-productive-people-do-these-six-things-ev

ery-day.