Oversleeping - it’s not your fault!

“And it’s a beautiful Monday morning today.  There isn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun is shining down at a balmy 72 degrees.  Stay tuned as we…”

The radio clicks on, speaking smoothly, and slowly you leave the comfort of your dreams. 

You smile as you roll over in your bed, glancing at your alarm clock as you go.  8:34, almost 10 hours of sleep.  What a fantastic way to start the…

“Gosh darn it!”
     
8:34, a perfectly reasonable time to wake up, but on those school days 8:34 means you’re either halfway through first period or you’ve missed first period entirely. 8:34 for two and a half months out of the year is actually an early wake up time for most high school students.  But on those school days, especially the first couple weeks after summer, what a pain.

Teenagers can be stereotyped in many ways, but the easiest way to stereotype teens is “they sleep so much.”  Does, “Maybe if you didn’t sleep so much, or if you went to bed at a reasonable hour, you wouldn’t be late to school,” sound familiar? 

Thankfully, research shows that for teens, waking up early in the morning is actually a greater pain than it is for adults and children. 

Sleep labs at Stanford and Brown Universities have found that teens need nine and a quarter hours of sleep each night, whereas children and adults can get away with eight or even seven to feel completely rested. 

It has also been observed that teens don’t start to feel sleepy until 10 at night.  Add nine and a quarter hours and you’re at 7:15 the next morning.  School starts at 7:40, which allows 25 minutes to get ready and get to school. Obviously, the high school schedule was not created for teens in mind.  So when teens oversleep and are late to school, it’s not their fault. 

Blame biology.  And poor planning.

Biology isn’t the only thing going against teens waking up and getting to school on time.  The whole “morning ritual” business seems designed to make teens late for school. 

Teens need breakfast in the morning.  It’s the most important meal of the day, but that
takes at least ten minutes, which leaves 15 minutes to do everything else if a teen got sufficient sleep.  Shower, get dressed, brush your hair, do your homework, brush your teeth, 15 minutes? 

If teens are groggy, tired, and half asleep, chances are they’re not capable of performing any sort of recognizable function until they’ve had breakfast or some form of caffeine.  But when teens’ biological clocks aren’t set to wake them up in the morning, the breakfast and caffeine needed to start the day has to be made while teens are half asleep and wishing to be in bed.  When you’re half asleep, buttering the toast and making the coffee just makes no sense until you’ve eaten the toast and drunk the coffee.  It would be ironic, but it’s 7:15 in the morning.

So obviously, the start time of school makes no sense.  The entire ordeal of waking up and getting ready at seven in the morning just doesn’t fit with the way nature made teens.  School should just start later.  Then all the problems would be solved.

8 Responses

1. 2:55 PM on October 23rd, 2006mom:

   let’s get the school district on board to make first period later!

2. 9:11 PM on October 23rd, 2006ahs alumni:

   i’m sure kids would rather get out of class earlier than go to class later.

3. 10:36 AM on October 25th, 2006student:

   the only reason someone cares when they get out is because of how long they have been there. if they went later there wouldn’t be much of a difference. i say make the school day later.

4. 10:54 AM on October 25th, 2006BoC:

   Wow, i never knew that, but i rather go home earlier than later, since i can just rest up then though i don’t get much sleep, but either way, everything gets confusing. Im pro and con for school starting later or being around 7 in the morning. +shrug+ can’t be helped ne?

5. 7:10 AM on November 2nd, 2006Keenan:

   I agree with BoC.

6. 7:11 AM on November 2nd, 2006Kel:

   Orange sodaaaaaaa

7. 4:22 PM on November 27th, 2006another mom:

   A later start makes so much more sense healthwise even though my AHS student would agree that she’d rather get home earlier in the day. Mornings would more likely be drama free with a teen who’s had a good night’s sleep!

8. 1:00 AM on January 1st, 2007i think:

   dat gurl in the pic look kinda good

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