How later school start times help teens get enough sleep

It’s a movement that’s slowly picking up steam – pushing high school start times back an hour.

Teens naturally want to go to bed later and sleep in later. By making them get up earlier, you can potentially be causing sleep deprivation.

For some school districts, the delayed start time is the answer to this chronic issue.

Why do teens need more sleep?

During the teen years, our biological sleep phase delays, so our bodies tend to want to go to sleep later at night and wake up later in the morning. With 7:30 a.m. school start times, teens have to wake up and be alert in school when their bodies naturally want to be asleep. Even if they get the recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep at night, their bodies still think they should be asleep at that time.

Early start times, coupled with extracurricular activities and homework, can make it difficult for teens to get enough sleep. And electronic devices aren’t helping. Cellphones and video games fragment their focus and expose them to light at night, causing a further shift in the sleep phase.

Later school start times benefit teen health

Pushing school start times to 8:30 a.m. could be beneficial in a number of ways.

Improved sleep

Waking up an hour later will be more in line with teens’ natural sleep tendencies, even if their total amount of sleep remains the same.

Improved grades

A lack of sleep theoretically could affect grades as well. The additional hour of sleep may help with cognitive function and memory consolidation – the time when our memories go from short term to long term.

Improved driving

Getting more sleep may help teens be safer on the roads. Drowsy driving impacts the ability to pay attention to the road, slows reaction time and affects decision-making.

Parents: How to help your teen get more sleep

If your teen’s school district hasn’t made the shift, all is not lost. Awareness and emphasis on the importance of sleep is key.

Pay attention to light

Since teens have to go to school during the week, encourage them to go outdoors and get as much natural sunlight as possible on the weekends. When the sun sets, keep the house lights dim. Lower the brightness on cellphones and set a time for phones to be turned off. This will help align their sleep phase to the solar clock.

Create an ideal sleep environment

Keep bedrooms dark, quiet and cool.

Keep electronics, such as televisions or video game systems, out of the bedroom. Having electronics in the bedroom can make it harder to fall asleep because teens become used to being in their bedroom doing other things.

Decrease the brightness of alarm clocks, and put cellphones on vibrate. When it’s time to get up, the bedroom should be bright to help increase alertness and to keep the sleep phase aligned with the school schedule. You may want to look into a light alarm that slowly increases the light as the alarm goes off in the morning to brighten the room.

Try to keep temperatures in the mid-60s at night so your teen’s core body temperature cools down, inducing deeper sleep.

Avoid disruptive foods

It’s also a good idea to discourage use of food or drinks with caffeine, including coffee, tea, soda and chocolate, before bed. They can stimulate teens and delay sleep.

Eating highly processed snacks can also lead to sleep disruptions, because they tend to contain a high sugar content and can cause blood sugar to spike, then crash.

Identifying sleep deprivation

Sleeping more on weekends may also be a sign of sleep deprivation and an attempt to catch up on sleep.

In addition to making teens more sleepy, chronic sleep deprivation has been associated with elevated blood glucose levels, higher blood pressures, higher risk for upper respiratory infections, decreased immune function and cognitive difficulties.

If teens are sleeping longer on weekends, they should try to avoid further shifting their sleep phase. They can do this by going to bed a bit earlier as well as sleeping in later. The key is to keep the midpoint of the sleep phase consistent. This avoids excessive shifts in the sleep clock and makes it less likely it will be disrupted during the week.

If teens are sleeping all weekend, they need to figure out a way to get more sleep each night. Twenty to 30 minutes of additional sleep a night can make a difference.