Williams 1

Katie Williams Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1103 11/7/2012 Meghan Osler Review Americas Future Needs More Rest As a recently graduated high school student who had a child and worked a full-time job while in high school, I understand completely that most high school students arent getting enough sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), teenagers need at least eight and a half hours of sleep a night (although nine and a quarter hours is ideal), and only fifteen percent of teens are getting that eight and a half hours on school nights. Sleep habits change for teenagers, making both the time that teens feel ready for bed and the time they feel ready to wake up later than younger children and grown adults. Sleep deprivation can cause teens ability to learn and listen to suffer, it can cause depression, aggressive behavior, it can also increase the chances of teens eating unhealthy, and increase teens use of alcohol and drugs (mainly tobacco). (Teens and Sleep; School Start) There is an obvious issue of sleep deprivation in high school students. Parents, teachers, and especially students alike will agree that students are suffering from exhaustion and with after-school jobs, activities, sports, clubs, homework, and social/family life, there just isnt enough time in the day for teenagers to get everything they must do done, and to get eight to nine hours of sleep a night. I believe many people would look at this issue and say So what? Teenagers are tired, they need to get their priorities straight and go to bed earlier. I worry that not enough people take this topic seriously. The main problem here is that when students are sleep deprived they dont perform their best in school. High school is very important; it often

Williams 2

determines what path these teens will take for the rest of their lives. Performance in high school decides what colleges and universities students can get accepted to, it also can decide whether or not the student will be able to afford to go to college or not. Many students depend on financial aid in order to attend college at all, and many forms of financial aid are based on students academic performance in high school. This is common knowledge-everyone knows that high school is essential for a teenagers future and with this being the case people need to realize that students will have a much better chance of success in their life if they have the best opportunity for success in high school. Students perform better when they are well rested, sleep is essential to success. I also believe that many people would respond to the problem of sleep deprivation in high school students by simply asserting that going to bed earlier would solve the issue. This is not an option for most high school students. Many students have to work after school and usually dont get off of work until between the hours of 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Also, after-school activities, especially sports, keep students out into the evening hours, and by the time they get home, have dinner, and do homework, there is no time to go to bed earlier. Going to bed earlier would also not be a solution to this issue because research by the University of Minnesota shows that the brain chemical Melatonin (a hormone that causes sleepiness and/or drowsiness) is released in teenagers from approximately 11 p.m. to 8 a.m., meaning that the teen is still going to be in sleep mode until at least 8 a.m., no matter what time the teenager goes to sleep. (Later Start) The University of Minnesota, through Kyla Wahlstrom and her research team, has performed extensive research on the subject of sleep deprivation in high school students and whether or not making high school start times later would be entirely possible, and if so, whether

Williams 3

or not the later start times would be beneficial enough to the students to be worth the effort to change the times in the long run. Wahlstroms team studied two Minneapolis-area school districts that changed their start times to 8:30 a.m. or later. Parents from the schools were initially worried about things such as busing and sports, but after one year of the later start times 92 percent of parents from one of the high schools who responded to a survey preferred the later start time. The school districts also reported less student depression, a lower dropout rate, and students reported having higher grades after the change. (Later Start) So if we have established that the problem of sleep deprivation in high school students is a serious issue that ought to be addressed, we must decide, what do we do to prevent and/or end sleep deprivation in high school students? The most logical and practical solution to this dilemma appears to be to push back high school start times so that students can sleep in until about 8 a.m., when the secretion of melatonin will be slacking off, the ideal time for teens to get up. I contacted the Superintendent of Gaston County Schools, Reeves McGlohon, who agreed that high school students need more rest, but brought up a number of issues with delaying high school start times that many school administrators and parents are concerned about, first of which is transportation. Gaston County runs a dual transportation system (which I believe that many other counties with limited funds also run on a dual transportation system), that is buses pick up middle and high school students and take them to school and then the same buses come back and pick up the elementary school students and then take them to school. Mr. McGlohon asserts that if you reverse the bus schedule so that the high school students can get more rest, than the elementary school students would be picked up first, and that

Williams 4

would require them to be at the bus stop at 6:30 a.m. or earlier, which many parents would not be happy about, because it is usually still dark outside at that time and it seems wrong to have the little ones out waiting in the dark. But I believe that there is a simple solution to this issue, which some schools who have implemented later start times have thought of too, that is to push back the entire school districts start times. That way the districts buses could keep the same schedule in essence, just make the times they get to every stop later in the morning. An additional solution to this issue would be to keep the elementary students at the same pick up times they are currently, but push back the middle and high school students start times enough to where the buses could pick up and take the elementary school students to school and then come back and pick up the middle and high school students and take them to school. I dont believe that the issue of transportation is enough of a problem to hinder the delaying of high school start times, if people realize that sleep deprivation in high school students is truly a major issue, than this small issue of bus routes can easily be resolved. The second problem that Mr. McGlohon addressed was that of extra-curricular activities; if you make the school start time later, then you would have to make the end time later, and students who participate in extra-curricular activities inside of school (such as clubs and sports) and outside of school (such as dance and music lessons) would be forced to participate in these activities into the late evening. But as stated by Michelle Trudeau as she spoke on National Public Radio, two Minneapolis-area school districts who have already implemented the later school start times fixed this issue by cutting the break times in between classes, which resulted in schools getting out not much later than they did originally. (Teens and Sleep; School Start) The last issue that Mr. McGlohon brings up goes along with the previous one, after school jobs. Mainly that the later starting and ending times for high school students would

Williams 5

restrict the number of hours that the students would be available to work. This would require the same solution as the previous problem: cutting back on the time in-between classes so that students can get out of school earlier. Another solution would be to cut back the school day. In schools that have implemented the later start time, they have seen improvement with start times around 8:30 a.m. or 8:40 a.m. (Teens and Sleep; School Start) This really is not that late for school to start, the average work day is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., school would still be starting before most adults even have to be at work. I know that most high schools in Gaston County currently start at 8 a.m. and end at 3 p.m., so if the start time was delayed until say 8:40 a.m., and the schools cut back time in-between classes by ten minutes, then school could still end at 3 p.m. and the school day would only be cut by thirty minutes, although school could get out at 3:30 p.m. and probably wouldnt interfere with after school activities and jobs significantly. Although there are many benefits to delaying high school start times and there have been practical solutions found to the main problems that have been addressed, the majority of school districts in America have maintained their early start times. Why? Well according to a local Annapolis newspaper this is due to the status quo. The newspaper states that it is hard to change tradition, especially when the change involves something that many school boards dont consider a major problem and being that the problem appears to be extremely difficult to change. The article brings up the efforts of an organization, Start School Later, to (as the name implies) delay high school start times for students to get more rest. The article asserts that the group has no chance of success when it is up against tradition, bureaucracy and money. (Changing High School) The thing is, it shouldnt cost any money to start school later, and it is not something that requires funds, just pushing back the schedules. The article could be referring to the extra costs

Williams 6

with getting additional school buses so that elementary, middle and high school students could all be picked up at the same time, but as I mentioned before if the district just delayed the all the schools in the districts schedule, than there would be no need for any additional school buses. Also, if the bureaucracy that the article refers to is the school boards or administrators, then they should be working to improve their students and their students lives, and in most places in America I believe that is the case. And when it comes to tradition, yes it can be difficult to change, but it is certainly not impossible. When it is to improve something tradition ought to be changed, regardless of how difficult it is to change. There are already enough problems associated with sleep deprivation in high school students to seriously consider changing high school start times, but Lynne Lamberg brings up an additional problem with sleep deprivation in high school students in her article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that of drowsy driving. Sleep deprivation in teens Induces dozing, lapses in attention, and flawed judgment and decision making; not a recipe for a good driver. A study at the University of Kentucky at Lexington focused on a school district whose start time was delayed by one hour. Two years after the change was implemented, car crashes for teens aged 17 and 18 years old had dropped 17 percent for that county, and had risen elsewhere in the state (where the change had not been implemented) eight percent. (Lamberg) Sleep deprivation in high school students is a major problem that can lead to physical and mental health issues. Many people agree that sleep deprivation is a problem for Americas adolescents, but people cannot agree on how to fix this problem. There comes a time when an issue is serious enough that tradition, bureaucracy and money must be overruled to better the community and society in general. The only real problems that have been addressed with delaying high school start time to decrease sleep deprivation in high school students have pretty

Williams 7

simple solutions. I believe that the best way to implement this plan to help Americas teens get more rest would be for parents to push the issue. If parents make this issue known and publicize it and its negative effects extensively, than eventually the bureaucracy will have no choice other than to break tradition. A problem is never fixed until it is severe enough to require fixing-people wont go the extra mile unless they have too. From my experience of speaking with school administrators, theyre not against changing the school start times (especially those with teenagers themselves who realize that their children are suffering from sleep deprivation) they just need to be assured that if the start time is changed that school would still run smoothly and that parents would have no serious complaints about the change. The administrators want teens to still be able to work and participate in after school activities without school hours interfering with such things. If school boards are shown the facts of the consequences of sleep deprivation in high school students and are presented with the solutions to any dilemmas that they are concerned with about changing the time, then it will certainly be easier to convince them that the high school start times should be changed and that it would be worthwhile to implement the change in the long run.

Williams 8

Works Cited Changing High School Start Times Wont Be Easy. The Capital 15 Mar. 2012: Points of View Reference Center. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. Later Start Times For High School Students. University of Minnesota. Regents of the University of Minnesota, 17 Aug. 2012. Web. 16 Oct.2012. Lamberg, Lynne. "High Schools Find Later Start Time Helps Students Health and Performance." The Journal of the American Medical Association 301.21 (2009): 2200-01. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. Michelle Trudeau High Schools Starting Later to Help Sleepy Teens. Childrens Health National Public Radio (NPR). 18 Jan. 2007. Radio. "School Start Time and Sleep." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. "Teens and Sleep." National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation, 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.

Williams 9

Comments: Page 1 Highlighted Items: I loved the opening with a personal experience! Maybe elaborate on it a little bit? Give an example of when lack of sleep affected your school performance. Consider rewording second highlighted sentence or turning it into several sentences. Third highlighted section, great insertion of your own opinion (continues on to page 2) very insightful! Presents argument and gives logical reasoning as to why the argument is true. Page 2 Highlighted Items: I love the insertion of a personal opinion followed by scientific facts from an academic source! Second highlighted section (page 2-3) I love the factual information, but I feel there could be a better transition from the previous paragraph. Page 3 Highlighted Items: First part, what made parents worry about these things? Second, wow, you actually contacted someone in the system and they didnt just ignore you??? First of all, thats awesome, second, what great firsthand research! Third part, would it be possible to include a direct quote from her? Page 4 Highlighted Items: First part, consider rewording sentence or creating two sentences. However, I love your proposed solution to the problem! Second part, how many breaks do they usually have between classes? Consider rewording last highlighted sentence. Page 5 Highlighted Items: First part, how do you know this? Also, I understand how it wouldnt affect jobs, but why not after school activities? Those dont always start right after school. Second part, I love asking questions! Youve already used the word assert, or asserts a few times, in this part, try using a different word with a similar meaning. In the last highlighted sentence,

Williams 10

when did money come into the equation? Did you talk about it before? Page 6 Highlighted Items: First part, I really like this section and I completely agree with you! Second Part, seriously consider revising this. Wordy and confusing! Could be two sentences. Third part, which issues does it cause specifically. Why are these issues linked to lack of sleep? Page 7 Highlighted Items: First part, again great insertion of your opinion and proposed solution! Second part, confusing sentence, try to reword it! Third part, good job reminding the readers of your own credentials and personal experience with this topic! Ending was well rounded. Didnt restate beginning completely but still summarized your main points. Works Cited: Honestly seem okay to me. I dont feel too confident checking over those. But the correct things are italicized, nothing is underlined and you have web/print/radio and the access date.

Overall: I really liked it! There were a few places where more detail could have been given (especially in the first half) and I think I pointed all of that out. A few sentences had odd wordings and could become two sentences (its a draft though so its no big deal) but thats a pretty easy fix. I think your paper could benefit from sub-headers to better help organize your points. You definitely got your point across and your personal experience really makes the reader see you as an authority on this topic! I learned several things I did not know before and I really enjoyed reading this! I hope my comments helped/werent too confusing! Meghan