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sixth night in a row that you are sleep deprived, and you can just sense a panic attack
2
coming. The increasingly higher demands and pressures on high schoolers are
causing them to sleep less and less, which has disastrous consequences not only on
their health, but on those around them. To address the growing concerns of the
scientific community on teenage sleep deprivation, schools have adopted later start
Argument
times. Unfortunately, some are opposed to these changes because a mere one hour
shift can have impacts on many aspects of a community’s functioning. Considering
the biology behind morning sleepiness and the consequences sleep deprivation can
have on health, these later start times are perfectly logical. But the real change
needed isn’t a later start time, but a shift in the very nature of high school culture.
To understand why teenagers are so sleepy, we need to consider several factors.
For one, the biology of a wacky inner clock. Studies have shown that the hormone
that creates drowsiness in the teenaged brain only comes into effect around 11 p.m.,
several hours later than in prepubescent children or adults who have reached
maturity. That means that by seven a.m., that hormone is still very much working on
the brain, inducing drowsiness, while younger children are usually more alert by that
time. Additionally, students, especially in their junior year, stay up until the early
hours to complete assignments. Sure, some of it is due to lack of organization, but the
simple fact is that the homework never ends. High schoolers also juggle multiple
commitments to clubs, sports, and part-time jobs, which are all exhausting. All of this
creates a day that is about fourteen to fifteen hours of activity, and I’m not accounting
for the tiring periodic growth spurts and brain development that is characteristic of
puberty. Despite all these factors that are entirely out of the hands of the affected
students, adults continue to decry teenagers as weaklings that should just go to
bed earlier.
Sleep deprivation, especially on a long-term basis, has terrible consequences.
From poor academic performance to fatal car crashes, sleep deprivation is just bad for
you. Multiple studies have found that it takes teenagers several classes to become
fully alert. This means they are basically missing out on two to three hours of class
work, which eventually leads to bad test scores. On the darker side, depression is also
an effect of sleep deprivation. Teenagers are already susceptible to higher levels of
anxiety that often go untreated. Mix that with sleep deprivation and nose-diving
grades, the result is full-fledged depression that is discounted as attention-seeking,
teenage whims. Lack of sleep is often compensated with overstimulation and
overeating, making a perfectly healthy seventeen-year-old overweight and addicted
to coffee, or worse, Adderall. Critics cite that a later start time creates “conflicts with
sports schedules and afterschool programs, leaves students without enough time for
afterschool jobs, and could interfere with bus schedules for elementary-school
students.” These are all valid objections. But teenagers’ health must take priority
over sports in the educational checklist.
While earlier start times are finally addressing the problem of teenaged sleep
deprivation, they barely scratch the surface. And as their critics have pointed out,

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