New research published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine finds that, starting the school day just a half hour later was associated with significant benefits for teens — from better sleep and enhanced alertness to improved mood and overall well being. The findings contribute to a growing body of research on the subject and echo those of previous studies conducted in the last 14 years suggesting the benefits of delayed school start for teens. Yet, as Kyla Wahlstrom of the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement points out in an accompanying editorial, accumulating evidence about the benefit of delayed start times is only one piece of the puzzle in actually implementing later school day starts for teens.
The study included 201 high school students at St. George’s, an independent school in Newport, Rhode Island. For two months — January 6 to March 6 of last year — the teens’ school day was pushed back from an 8:00am to an 8:30am start. The researchers found that even this relatively small delay was associated with a broad range of benefits. As in previous studies, students reported greater duration of sleep each night during the study period, but what was unexpected, researchers say, was that students were not only sleeping later in the morning, but also went to bed earlier as well. In total, during the two month study, students gained an average of 45 minutes’ sleep on school nights. In part this increase may have been due to “seasonal changes in bedtime” the researchers say, but at least anecdotally they found that some students reported trying to get to bed earlier as well after they noticed feeling better with an extra half hour’s sleep in the morning.
