Sleep is vital, just as important as the air we breath, yet most teenagers are not getting enough of it. Recent studies have shown that teenagers require about nine to ten hours of sleep a night in order to function properly and stay healthy. After discovering these adolescent sleep studies, schools in Seattle are trying to push forward start times to after eight or nine o’clock. If students are allowed to sleep longer, their school performance may increase and students may be more alert and focused in class.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, the consequences of insufficient sleep are numerous, ranging from bad eating habits to acne. A lack of sleep can limit a student’s ability to learn, to listen, to concentrate and to solve problems. Teens may even experience an inability to remember names, numbers or homework. Aggression and impatience are also commonly associated with lack of sleep.

The 7:40 AM start time at Lewis-Palmer High School is argued to be too early according to the studies conducted. A teenagers biological clock shifts during adolescence; usually, most teens won’t be able to fall asleep before 11 PM. This means most teenagers are averaging six hours of sleep each night.

Logan Welsh, 11, and Noah Bettner, 11, are both students at Lewis-Palmer High School. Welsh and Bettner gave their opinions on the current start time and how a later start time might affect the wellbeing of the students at Lewis-Palmer.

“It’s almost like waking up in the middle of the night, even though it’s 6 in the morning, but I think a later start time would probably help me in school,” Welsh said.

But even with a later start time, students might not find it to be completely beneficial. A later start time would also mean that the time school ends would also be pushed back. With sports, after school activities and homework, students might find it harder to find time to balance all of these.

“I would say that it might be a good and a bad thing. I like being able to get home earlier and have that time to get work done, but at the same time I also like to sleep,” said Bettner.

This sleep deprivation issue is somewhat of a new problem, and technology may be the cause. Cell phone use is at an all time high, and it can cause teens to go to bed even later than their biological clock tells them to. In an ever growing technology based society, it can be hard for teens to put down their phones for the sake of being alert in school.

Jackson Grotts, 9, a student at Palmer-Ridge High School, shared his struggles with going to bed late and how it affects him in school.

“My parents don’t really care when I go to bed, if I end up getting 3 hours of sleep that night it’s my fault. Usually I try to go to bed around eleven, but then I just stay up on my phone until twelve or twelve thirty. In the morning I feel like dying when my alarm goes off, then when I do get to school I can barely keep my eyes open and I don’t have the energy to do any work.”    

Benefits of sleep would not only help students improve focus and attitude, but schools would also greatly benefit from this. Better test scores and a higher graduation rate could potentially mean more funding for the school. If schools seek to bring out the most potential in their students, then pushing back start time could prove to be very rewarding in more ways than one.