Teens Perform Better With More Sleep Hours, Later School Hours

Representatives from various sleep-related institutional experts who reviewed scientific literature found out that middle school students sleep longer and start school later than usual perform better and are more alert resulting to lesser rates of vehicular accidents. Among those who participated in the review are the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Up to 18 studies reviewed by their peers which were published before April 2016 shows that the later the school started, the greater the increase in the students' sleep duration. Science Daily said the review showed that students who had to start school 60 minutes later increased by 19 minutes their sleep hour during school nights while those who had to start school later than 60 minutes increased their sleep duration by an average of 53 minutes.

"Our review intended to bring some rigor to evaluating how later school start times affect various aspects of high school student health and performance," American Academy of Sleep Medicine past president and lead author Timothy I. Morgenthaler, MD said. "Many people believe that school start times are one of the big reasons students do not get enough sleep; a CDC study found that 85.6 percent of U.S. high schools started before 8:30 a.m., which is the earliest time recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Because of this, there is a push to move school start times later."

Eureka Alert said the review, which was published with the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine this month, said the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommended between eight to ten hours of sleep for every 24 hours for teenagers between 13 to 18 years old for maximum health benefits. However, 69% of them only have less than eight hours of sleep during school nights.

Science Newsline said starting school at a later time does not only improve the performance of the students but it could also reduce the cases of tardiness among them. The review is significant considering that high school students are the future of the nation and their mental as well as physical health will help determine the quality of that future.