Debate: Should school starts early?

Side: Opponent side

Reasons why school should start late

Reason 1: Helps students to focus
Explanation:
- One of the primary reasons school should start later is that it helps them
focus. For students who are naturally inclined to stay up late and sleep in, going
to school earlier can disrupt their circadian rhythm, diminishing their capacity
to retain information.
- What teachers often mistake for laziness is often the student’s body being
negatively impacted by an unnatural biological cycle, compounding in a lack of
focus on schoolwork.

- In fact, a study by Lufi et al. (2011) found that an extra hour of sleep for
adolescents significantly increased their attention levels on the “Mathematics
Continuous Performance Test”.

- By contrast, students that have a hard time focusing are also often singled out
for misbehaviour, which can affect their self-perception and make them less
inclined to put in effort at school.

Reason 2: Caters to their natural sleep schedule

Explanation:
- Especially for teenagers, the tendency is to stay up late and sleep
longer, needing 8.5-9.5 hours to be fully rested. For a student who goes to bed
at 11p.m., they would need to sleep until 7:30-8:30a.m. to be fully rested, a
time frame when most schools have already started.
- At the end of the day, better sleep means better performance in school.
Students who feel refreshed in the morning are more likely to be optimistic
about the day’s work and more receptive to learning.

Reason 3: Helps teen feels happier

Explanation:
- When school starts early, teenagers can feel as though their natural circadian
rhythm is off all the time, negatively affecting their mood and sense of well-
being.
- In fact, well-being is one of the most positive outcomes from research on late
school start times (Marx et al., 2017).

Anecdotally, teenagers seem to be inclined to go to bed later (perhaps due to

less self-governing abilities than adults). They also tend to need longer periods
of rest than adults because they are going through significant physical and
cognitive changes.

Reason 4: Reduce stress

Explanation:
- In a similar vein, students face a lot of stress that can negatively affect their
performance in school, and the prospect of starting school so early is yet
another factor that may contribute to stress in their lives.

- Starting school later may on a case-by-case basis reduce stress, especially

when it comes to attending first period. For example, the systematic review by
Marx et al. (2017) found that some research shows that children often “are
less tense at home, and school nurses have reported fewer stress-related
complaints and illnesses.”

Reason 5: Fewer behavioural problems

Explanation:

- Teens experience mood swings as a common result of puberty,

however, poor sleep habits only worsen their moods and outbursts. Sleep
deprivation may cause mood changes including anxiety, stress, irritability,
lack of motivation, and depression.

-When students sleep enough, their mood is more stable, positive, and
they’re at a decreased risk of developing depressive symptoms. For parents,
children who sleep enough are generally easier to live with.
Cause of school starting early:
1. Not getting enough sleep
Explanation:
- The document called American Academy of sleep medicine recommends that
teenagers aged 13 to 18 years should regularly sleep 8 to 10 hours per day for
good health. Adolescents who do not get enough sleep are more likely to

 Be overweight.
 Not engage in daily physical activity.
 Suffer from symptoms of depression.
 Engage in unhealthy risk behaviours such as drinking, smoking tobacco,
and using illicit drugs.
 Perform poorly in school.

- During puberty, adolescents become sleepy later at night and need to sleep
later in the morning as a result in shifts in biological rhythms.1 These biological
changes are often combined with poor sleep habits (including irregular
bedtimes and the presence of electronics in the bedroom).2 During the school
week, school start times are the main reason students wake up when they
do.3 The combination of late bedtimes and early school start times results in
most adolescents not getting enough sleep.

2.  It reduces the risk of a metabolic disorder.

Students who receive enough sleep each night has a reduced risk of obesity.
There are also fewer eating disorders associated with a later start time to the
school day. That means a school district can support a child’s future health,
including their risk for diabetes development, by allowing them to get a later
start to their day. Although there is no guarantee that parents won’t let their
kids stay up even later with this schedule, there is no way to control individual
households. What the board can do is create an environment where everyone
who wants to experience a successful learning situation can have it. An earlier
start doesn’t usually make that happen.