Get More Sleep!
Journey, departure, daybreak. I'm not implying themes of traveling. Instead, I'm reminding you of the Apple ringtones that many use to remind them of something important. A familiar sound that echoes, consumes, and pulls you from sleep as you fight every instinct not to press snooze. For many high school students, this isn't just a morning annoyance—it's the start of a day where they're expected to focus, analyze, and think critically on a brain that's still seeking rest. Yet the average high school student often survives on just six hours, waking at dawn only to be thrust into a demanding academic day. Students are the living emblem of a school, their achievements reflecting the institution’s commitment to academic excellence. Yet, when sleep deprivation enters the picture, the emblem can tarnish. While most schools demand early morning start times, what if this norm is undermining the very excellence schools strive to uphold? When considering adjustments to school start times, schools should prioritize both academic performance and student well-being over logistical convenience to foster the most effective learning environment possible, where students can thrive.
Students strive to perform well in school. Whether motivated by a desire to satisfy their parents or to meet their own standards, academic achievement can serve as a key motivator. However, without adequate sleep for both students and faculty, the ability to perform to one’s fullest potential is hindered. Therefore, academic performance is one important factor schools should consider when opting for a later start time, as students are more attentive and prepared when well-rested. According to Source E, poor sleep leads to a lack of concentration, distraction, and memory loss, which can affect a student’s ability to focus and effectively learn, as information cannot be retrieved if it was never encoded. Thus, sleep-deprived students may miss important material, struggle to understand concepts, and consequently perform poorly on tests. My personal experience, which aligns with many other students at SAS, is an example of this. When unable to attain an adequate number of hours of sleep, I struggle to understand concepts and miss material as I constantly fall asleep throughout class. As a result, the material taught that day often corresponds to the multiple-choice questions I get incorrect on the test the following day. This has caused my academic performance to decline, yet it has taught me the importance of sleep and its immense impact on one's academic performance. If schools enforce this change and push back their start times, students' academic performance will strengthen, which may be helpful for students memorising heavy classes such as AP Psychology. While we often worry about sleep-deprived students, we overlook that lack of sleep is just as common and detrimental for teachers as well. Since it can disrupt their daytime functioning, a teacher's instructional effectiveness and the quality of education are hindered. Therefore, the instructional effectiveness of teachers should also be a factor that schools consider to ensure the highest level of quality education. A seed without soil is left to suffer. Without soil to provide nutrients, a seed's growth is strained. Just like seeds, the growth of a student depends on the guidance their teachers provide. Yet, not all students face success due to the lack of learning they receive. This is emphasized by a study of teachers at schools that implemented later start times—and therefore experienced increased sleep duration—which found that the change “profoundly changed their lives, allowing them to be a more effective teacher” (Weir, Kirsten). This finding illustrates just how successful implementing later start times could be for both teachers and students. With a later start time, teachers will experience a greater level of daytime functioning that will allow them to teach more effectively and improve the quality of education they provide. With more energy, teachers can arrive at school more energized, organize effective activities that excite and engage students, and increase their interactions with their students by checking up on them and offering them individual guidance. Further, teachers will also face fewer situations where their memory is cloudy and when they lose focus and dwindle throughout the day. In fact, according to Source F, a study found that sleep-deprived teachers performing repeated decision-making tasks saw their skills deteriorate until their scores approached "a score consistent with early-stage dementia." Picture sitting in confusion as your teacher presents a vague explanation of logarithms. You raise your hand expecting help, only to realize your teacher is too sleep-deprived to remember how to solve it themselves. You walk away confused, fail the question on the test, and begin a downward spiral of academic decline. None of these is a desirable situation, and it is a solvable problem with a possible solution. Sleep is just as important for students as it is for teachers, and pushing back start times can open the door for better-rested teachers with sharper, more dynamic, and more effective lessons.
Abraham Maslow once stated that we cannot focus on higher needs like belonging and achievement until our physiological needs, such as sleep, are fulfilled. Therefore, a student's well-being, encompassing both mental and physical health, is another factor schools should consider. Beyond learning, a growing student's health is equally important. Insufficient sleep can lead to a variety of adverse outcomes, as sleep is a key factor that supports adolescent growth, emotional regulation, stress management, and self-efficacy. According to Source B, a lack of sleep can immensely influence and change activity in certain parts of the brain. Individuals may encounter difficulty controlling their emotions and behaviors, feeling impulsively angry, experiencing mood swings, lacking motivation, and having trouble interacting positively with others. These behaviors can negatively influence an individual's social interactions and decision-making. For example, sleep-deprived individuals may begin to project their anger onto others over minor inconveniences, make sudden, life-threatening decisions, ruin opportunities to foster new friendships, and lack motivation to participate in activities that require commitment and bring structure and joy into their lives. Imagine a student who received 5-6 hours of sleep. Minor setbacks, such as their bus being late, could set them off, causing them to project their anger onto their bus driver, despite the driver having no control over the situation. At school, the student may possess no motivation to complete group work and say impulsive comments to their peers, resulting in consequences such as being sent to the school office or experiencing ostracism. Thus, students may face loneliness afterwards from their friends, causing them to become emotionally distressed and decreasing their motivation, as Source E identifies interpersonal connections as being crucial for maintaining academic motivation. Therefore, more sleep can support one's mental state positively by regulating emotions better, handling stress, and avoiding conflicts, leading to healthier relationships, fewer behavioral issues, and greater emotional stability. Opting for a later school start time may also benefit a student's physical health. A well-rested body with adequate sleep supports healthy growth and development, as well as strengthens the body’s ability to fight disease. A body rested by sleep is a healthier and stronger body, as hormones, such as growth hormones, which boost muscle mass and help repair cells and tissues, are released during sleep, according to Source B. Growth hormones are imperative for human physical development as they play a major role in regulating body composition, cell regeneration, and metabolism. Especially for young, growing individuals, these hormones directly help build the bones, muscles, and tissues that form a strong adult body. Therefore, an individual lacking sleep may experience fatigue and body aches, which can cause them to suddenly faint if their bones are too fragile to sustain their weight. Consequently, individuals suffering from such conditions may have trouble completing their responsibilities, such as showing up to work, as they may not be physically well enough to function. For example, an individual whose work centers around presenting speeches or serving customers throughout the day may immensely struggle with a lack of sleep. Furthermore, with sleep having a major impact on metabolism, sleep strengthens one's defense mechanisms against sickness, as “if you're sleep deficient, you may have trouble fighting common infections” (Source B). Imagine an individual who receives little to no sleep every night. Their chances of developing or catching diseases are higher, especially during flu season. When sick, they may lose their appetite and experience constant fevers, thus decreasing their energy, causing them to lose weight, and leaving their bodies fragile.
If there are so many benefits to pushing back school start times, why is this change so often not implemented in schools? When considering a later start, logistical factors frequently take precedence and limit the freedom schools have in making this decision. Opting for a later time seems easy in principle, but proves difficult in practice, largely due to traffic concerns. Without a doubt, traffic congestion is a critical logistical issue. No student, parent, or teacher wishes to sit in a vehicle during rush hour both morning and night. In fact, according to Source C, major stress arose after pushing back school start times, as teachers living in densely settled regions worried about the heavier morning commute they would face. Teachers also feared that evening traffic would prevent them from staying after school for extracurricular activities. Parents, too, disliked the prospect of their children being stuck in traffic on school buses and how their work schedules could be affected by evening traffic. Early school start times are designed to avoid these rush hour periods, which is why this factor is deeply considered and often becomes the primary limiting factor. Further, considering logistical factors in return is also considering a student's mental and physical health, as sitting on a long bus ride stuck in traffic can strain students, especially those who experience motion sickness or struggle sitting for long periods of time. For this reason, wouldn't starting school later actually be detrimental for students since they spend more time stuck in traffic? One could argue that these longer bus times can actually be beneficial, providing students time to socialize with their peers, finish extra work, or even obtain a few more minutes of sleep. For example, my experience, similar to that of many other students at SAS, provides an example of how longer bus times can actually be beneficial. For me, my 40-minute bus ride provides the opportunity to get a few more minutes of sleep, socialize with my peers, and relieve stress by tending to them, or study for a test. I often rely on my bus time to review vocabulary words for the SAT or AP Psychology tests to refresh my memory in the morning. Granted, nobody enjoys sitting in a congested bus full of students stuck in traffic. However, traffic should be a factor to plan for, but not the factor that decides whether later school start times should be implemented. After all, a school's primary mission is not to ensure a smooth commute, but to educate. If we are willing to inconvenience students with early mornings for the sake of traffic, why not inconvenience traffic for the sake of students? Many schools, such as Shanghai American School, have turned away from plans to start later due to anticipated traffic problems, despite having solutions that directly address this traffic concern. For example, one solution could be having schools prioritize this implementation of later start times for middle and high school students experiencing adolescence, and not for elementary students, as their circadian rhythm has yet to shift. This solution could therefore result in fewer school buses on the roads in the morning, reducing traffic yet still prioritising sleep for students.
Every hardworking student yearns for the moments when they can see themselves succeed. Whether success is reflected in a grade, an interaction, or an activity, humans crave that satisfaction. It is deeply unfortunate, then, to see students question their abilities and undermine their skills after poor scores that may have resulted from a lack of sleep. It is even more disheartening for teachers to watch their students fall asleep in class, or for parents to slowly witness their children become mentally frayed and physically depleted under the burden of chronic sleep deprivation. A student's well-being and academic performance should undoubtedly overshadow logistical factors like traffic when deciding whether to start school later. What school could take pride in a student body struggling merely to stay awake? What teacher could find fulfillment in educating minds too fatigued to focus? If schools truly prioritize their students, they will make the necessary adjustments. In doing so, students may soon receive the adequate sleep they deserve, unlocking a profound physical, mental, and academic transformation. With this change, perhaps the morning journey, the school departure, and the daybreak will no longer signal the start of another exhausting day ahead.
Work Cited:
American Association of School Administrators. "Logistical Thinking Behind Later School Starts." AASA, www.aasa.org/resources/resource/Logistical-
Thinking-Behind-Later-School-Starts. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.
Frontiers. "The Effect of Sleep Quality on Learning Engagement of Junior High School Students: The Moderating Role of Mental Health." Frontiers in Psychology, 29 Jan. 2025, www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1476840/full.
Imperial College London. "Being a 'Night Owl' Is Associated with Mental Sharpness, Study Shows." Imperial News, 11 July 2024, www.imperial.ac.uk/news/254738/being-night-associated-with-mental-sharpness/.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. "Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency – How Sleep Affects Your Health." NHLBI, NIH, 15 June 2022, www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation/health-effects.
Weir, Kirsten. "Schools Shift as Evidence Mounts That Later Start Times Improve Teens' Learning and Well-Being." American Psychological Association,
30 Oct. 2023, www.apa.org/topics/children/school-start-times.
Xceed Preparatory Academy. "Why Should School Start Later? Sleep, Grades, & Well-Being." Xceed Preparatory Academy, 28 Oct. 2025, www.xceedprep.org/why-its-ridiculous-that-high-schools-start-so-early-in-the-morning/.