Is it a daily struggle to drag your son or daughter out of bed at the crack of dawn to get ready for school? Well you’re in luck, because this start of the school year, many doctors are arguing that later start times for classes are good for students' health.

How big of an issue is sleep deprivation among teens?

According to the National Sleep Foundation, teens need an average of 9 ¼ hours of sleep to function optimally. Unfortunately, this number is a laughing matter for most adolescent students. A poll by the NSF shows that fully 87% of high school students get less than the recommended amount of sleep, and that 58% of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 spend less than seven hours a night in bed.

The motivation for skimping on sleep is not hard to understand. With many young adults taking on a full course load, a slew of extracurricular activities, and a plethora of other responsibilities ranging from after-school jobs to caring for siblings, it can be tempting to cram more hours in the day by cutting back on rest. For the less concretely occupied, the Internet offers an endless store of distractions that can easily lead to postponing bedtimes. With nearly 70% of Americans failing to recognize sleep as an integral component to their health, it's not surprising that teens often push it to the wayside. 

This sleep deprivation can actually lead to a decrease in the productivity of school-aged students.  Drowsiness can impair mental function, reduce recall, cause mood swings/ aggressive or sullen behavior, make it harder to learn, and, paradoxically, make it take longer to complete schoolwork that, in turn, necessitates a later bedtime.  Sleep deprivation in students has even been tied to lower grades and test scores and a higher incidence of car crashes.

So what do doctors propose?

Make it easier for teens to get more sleep, is the message coming from the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP). Push back morning start times for schools.

In a report released earlier this week, the AAP pointed out that allowing students more time to sleep in the morning would improve their concentration, attention, academic performance, and overall health. The Academy recommends a start time of no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

At this point parents may be asking themselves, if school starts later, doesn’t that just mean that my teen will go to bed later as well, essentially pushing back their sleep schedule without increasing the amount of hours they spend in bed?

Not so, says the committee issuing the statement. The reason is biological. Teenagers are naturally inclined to go to bed and wake up late. Certain adolescent hormones prevent teenagers from feeling tired until relatively late at night, even if they are physically tired. Even if they want to sleep, they may find it difficult to doze off. Therefore, trying to implement an earlier bedtime might not be practical.

Studies conducted over the past four years by the AAP confirm this analysis. At one school that pushed its start time back by an hour, almost 15% more students reported getting over 8 hours of sleep after the change. At another institution, students actually reported that the extra half-hour of sleep they were getting in the morning allowed them to go to bed earlier too because they were able to complete homework more efficiently.

What do you think? Would starting school later help teens get more sleep? Would you prefer your child going to school at 8:30 or 9:00 instead of 8:00? Let us know in the comments!

Sources: Time, The Atlantic, National Sleep Foundation

Photo Credit: MC Quinn