School start times vary between elementary, middle, and high school, making it difficult to establish and maintain a consistent schedule for K-12. However, sleep needs change as children develop, and it's important that school start times reflect this. What also needs to be considered when deciding school start times is how they impact parents. Continue reading to learn more about optimal school start times.
School Start Time and Elementary Students
Elementary school kids need 9-12 hours of sleep per 24 hours. They are growing and learning a lot, and need to refresh their bodies for the next day. Research showed that making school start times later had no effect on them. Therefore, earlier start times still work for elementary school kids as long as they are in bed early enough to get the recommended number of hours of sleep.
School Start Time and Middle School Students
Teens need about 8-10 hours of sleep. However, at this age, sleep hormones start to change, and students go to bed and wake up later than when they were school-aged. However, early school start times do not align with this change, and pre-teens end up not getting enough sleep. They're unable to go to bed as early as they did when they were in elementary school, yet they have to get up just as early, if not earlier, when they're in middle school.
Inadequate sleep at this age can lead to poor academic performance, moodiness, and increased risk for developing mental health disorders at an age when mental health is so important. By moving school start times later, middle school students were able to get more sleep during the week, require less make-up sleep on the weekends, and have less daytime sleepiness.
School Start Time and High School Students
High school students are similar to middle school students. They are also transitioning from needing as many hours of sleep, but their clocks make it harder for them to go to sleep earlier. Therefore, it's important that they can sleep in later to get the required amount of sleep (8-10 hours of sleep). By pushing back their school start times a little over an hour, high school students had similar results as medical students. They got more sleep during the week and required less make-up sleep on the weekends. They also had a drop in daytime sleepiness.
Increasing the amount of time they're asleep can also help with regulating their moods, increasing their energy for learning, and reducing the risk for mental health disorders.
School Start Time and Parents
School start times are important for students, but parents also benefit from later start times as they allow parents to catch up on much-needed sleep. Parents require 7-8 hours of sleep. In a survey, only 64-74% of adults were obtaining sufficient sleep, but after the shift in school times, 82% of parents reported getting adequate sleep.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that both middle and high schools begin no earlier than 8:30 am so that families can sleep more and improve the educational experience across the board.
If you or someone you know is having sleep issues, please click the orange button to take a free online sleep test and talk with one of our sleep health professionals.
[Sources]:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/parent-sleep-impacted-by-changing-school-start-times
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need