Does society want tired, sleepy zombies roaming the halls in schools around the country? Of course not! That is exactly why schools throughout the country need to start later. American children’s test scores have been dropping in recent years, and a lot of this has to do with school starting too early. Schools must start later because schools will have healthier children, lower dropout rates/disciplinary problems, and students will get better grades. Starting school later, a wonderful idea, would have countless benefits.

To start, kids need a certain amount of sleep to be successful and healthy. Starting school later would be very beneficial to students’ mental and physical health. If teens don’t get enough sleep it impacts their judgment, increasing the number of children that drink alcohol and do drugs. Also, it has been proven that if students don’t get enough sleep it significantly slows mental and physical growth. Students in grades six through twelve require eight and a half to nine and a quarter hours of sleep each night. However, many get seven or less. The National Sleep Foundation found that sixty percent of the students in the experiments complained of being tired to the nurse, or to their friends. A different study showed that twenty percent of students actually sleep for the first two hours of the day, or about twenty-five percent of the day. Lastly, there have been studies that showed that from 11 PM to 8 AM their brains are still in “sleep mode.”
To follow, if schools want to keep dropout rates and disciplinary suspensions to a minimum, school needs to start later. A study by Dr. Wahlstrom, a professor at the University of Minnesota, showed that dropout rates significantly decrease when school starts later. Schools from around the country have showed that starting school later dropped tardiness rates, and if a child is tardy enough times they can get suspensions. Dr. Wahlstrom also devised a study that showed if school started later, than teens would get more sleep, decreasing depression and drug use. More data for North Eastham County showed that the number of disciplinary suspensions dropped from 166 to nineteen, after they switched their school start time to 8:30.
To add, there would be smarter children walking on American soil if school started later. Giving children more time to sleep would result in children being awake during school, therefore they would learn more during the school day. If school started later children would have more time to study, which would earn them better grades. To continue, studies have shown that a good night sleep relieves stress, and if there is no stress in a child’s life they would do better on tests. Finally, North Eastham County switched their start time to 8:30 AM, and the number of failing grades dropped a stunning fifty-three percent.
There are numerous reasons as to why school needs to start later. Obviously, starting school later has many benefits such as healthier children, lower dropout/disciplinary suspension rates, and better grades. If America wants their next generation to be smart, responsible adults, schools need to start later.