There’s more evidence that early school start times conflict with the circadian cycles of teenagers, reports Counsel Heal.
Published in the Journal of Sleep Research, the study found that on average, schools in Canada start at 8:43 in the morning. On average, most teenagers slept for around 8.4 hours on weekdays with around 69 percent meeting the national sleep recommendations. Sixty percent of the teenagers reported feeling tired in the morning.
According to the researchers, early school start time is in conflict with the natural circadian clock of teenagers. As these young people go through adolescence, their body clock gets delayed two to three hours thus sleeping before eleven at night is a struggle. Contributing to early school start time, teenagers don’t get enough sleep and are prone to physical and mental problems.
This explanation backs up the need for schools to consider starting later than usual. Every ten-minute delay in school start is equivalent to an additional 3.2 minutes of sleep for teenagers. The study found that schools that have a late start time, have teenagers getting enough sleep thus reducing the self-reported tiredness in the morning.
Read the rest at www.counselheal.com
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