The students attending FWCS Middle Schools in Fort Wayne, IN, begin their school days at 7:20am. Most of the students believe that this is way too early to start class. Many of these kids wake up at 6:00 or earlier to get ready for the day.
Picture this… early in the morning, in a Blackhawk classroom, you would see a lot of empty seats. This is because many students are late to their first period class. A common reason for being late is that the children just don’t have enough time in the mornings. They could wake up earlier, but for some of those kids, that means getting up at 5-5:30am! Sleepfoundation.org explains the effects starting school later, had on a school district in Minneapolis, “It also found improvement in attendance and enrollment rates, increased daytime alertness, and decreased student-reported depression.”
Christian Hernandez, an 8th grade student at Blackhawk Middle School, is very passionate about sleep. When asked about his opinion on this topic, Christian gave a very long speech about how school starting times have affected him. He believes that the school day begins to early, and because of that, he is missing out on valuable sleep. Christian continued to explain his tendency of staying up late, and want, to sleep in later. Sleepfoundation.org says, “…more mature adolescents had later circadian rhythm timing…thus, it is difficult for them to go to sleep earlier at night.” Startschoollater.net explains, “Shifts in the sleep-wake cycle at puberty mean that most adolescents get their best sleep between 11pm and 8am.” Because Christian has to ride the bus to school, he gets up at around 5:30am. This cuts into important sleep times. Christian reported feelings of stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and craziness from school. He also thinks that by starting middle school later, he could get ready for the schedule FWCS high schoolers have.
Maya Hower, an 8th grader at Blackhawk Middle School, also believes that she begins school too early. Maya said that she is tired a lot during the school day. She goes to bed around 9-10pm and wakes up at around 5-5:30am. According to startschoollater.net, Maya is only getting around 6 hours of her best sleep.
A survey of 24 middle school students that attend FWCS concludes that around 49% get 5-7 hours of sleep, 50% get 7-9 hours of sleep, and about 4% get more than 9 hours.
An anonymous FWCS middle schooler explained that they’re tired every day. The student gets around 8 1/2 hours of sleep each night, but only 7 of those hours fall in the important sleep range. This student reported feelings of depression and school-related stress. Sleepfoundation.org supports this by telling readers that a district that started school later had less student reported depression. We can only imagine the struggle to miss so much sleep, work hard at school and other activities, and be fighting depression on top of that.
A website called, “nationwidechildrens.org” explains to readers some affects sleep deprived children between the ages of 13-18 may experience. The article explains that students could experience negative impacts on mood, cognitive ability, behavior, and academic performance. The absence of sleep could cause children to partake in dangerous activities.
According to these sources, there are many reasons to push back school start times. Emma Fiess, a Blackhawk Middle School 8th grader, does wish that she could sleep in later, but is concerned about after school sports. While Maya Hower and Christian Hernandez felt like after school activities could be pushed back and adjusted, Emma thinks later times would get in the way. Sleepfoundation.org states, “Students are concerned that being in school later in the day means that it will cut into after-school jobs and other extracurricular activities.”
Later school start times could get in the way of sports and after school activities. But, some seem to think that getting better sleep and being ready for school is more important. It seems as if the empty classroom seats in the early mornings at Blackhawk Middle School could be filled, by giving students a little more time before they have to hurry to school. In the meantime, there are some ways to help students feel less tired during the day. Nationwidechilderens.org suggests maintaining a regular sleep schedule, using less technologies such as television and the radio, not oversleeping on the weekends, and avoiding caffeine, smoking, drugs and alcohol. Middle School is an important time in all children’s lives, and the time that they start their day, has a large impact on tomorrow. 