Research shows teens benefit from a later start time for school and that later start times generally helps families as a whole.
PENNSYLVANIA, USA — It can be extremely difficult to get your kids up for school in the morning, but the truth is, it's not all their fault.
The majority of teens are sleep deprived, according to research. This research has also shown that delaying the start of school helps kids get more sleep, and in this week's Health Smart, FOX43 looks at a new study that found it also helps their parents.
As a parent of two teen boys, Kelly Osuna knows the struggle of trying to get them up and out the door for school in the morning. And as a teacher, she noticed her first class of the day is often not as alert and ready to learn as her others.
"It was just a constant struggle of wanting to be compassionate but at the same time, they're falling asleep and nodding off in the morning," Osuna said.
Research has shown that adolescents are just not biologically equipped to rise early during puberty and a new study by the Sleep Center at National Jewish Health found that early school start times are also detrimental to their parents' sleep.
"We talk a lot about teens being sleep deprived, but we know adults are sleep deprived as well," Osuna said. "It's very hard to make up that sleep debt."
Researchers partnered with a large school district in Colorado to examine the impact of adjusting middle and high school start times to later in the day, and elementary schools to earlier in the day.
"Fewer parents reported feeling tired if you had a student in middle school or high school as they were getting more sleep," Osuna said.
The study found that parents didn't go to sleep any later when middle and high school start times were moved back, but that they instead slept later into the morning. And the new start times did not affect the sleep of parents of younger children, who reported moving both bedtimes and wake-up times slightly earlier.
"A lot of parents said, 'Not only did it help my sleep, but it helped our family in the morning in particular. My teenagers were less grumpy. It was a lot easier to wake them up in the morning,'" Osuna said. "I think those family functioning things are important as well."
That was definitely the case for herself, who is seeing the benefits in both the classroom and at home.
"I feel much, much more alert and I notice that at the end of the day, I still have some energy, I'm not dragging at the end of the day, so that helps our family time," Osuna said.
Despite the mounting evidence of the benefits of later school start times, most middle and high schools still begin the day before 8 a.m. And while there are some challenges to making these adjustments, such as changing bus routes and extracurricular schedules, experts say it's worth the effort to improve the health and wellbeing of students and their families.
