Benefits of Starting School Later Essay Example

“Zzzzzz...” In bed, you are dozing off, but then a thunderous sound reaches your ears and you wake up. Although you are basically half asleep you know you still have to go to school. This is a problem that schools start extremely early which prevents students from having the hours of sleep they need, the time to eat, and the energy students need throughout the day. This may surprise you but around 90% of high schools and 80% of middle schools in America start school before 8:30 AM. As a result, starting school early can negatively affect everyone in school including staff members so solving this problem of schools not starting at a later time can have many benefits.

To start off, not having enough sleep is the main point of why school should start later because having sleep deprivation can have many negative effects. According to the website “California Tells Schools to Start Later, Giving Teenagers More Sleep”, it states that ,”Students who had more sleep reported better mental health. Students who slept more also had improved attendance and enrollment rates.” Sleep is a very crucial thing especially before school and having more sleep can improve mental health and attendance in school. Furthermore, another website called “Sleep Foundation” also confirms from a study that early school times results in students getting less sleep which can heavily impact students’ grades and also the problem of not paying attention during class. So students having a reduced amount of sleep can heavily affect their class assessments in an awful way. To summarize this paragraph, sleep deprivation can cause students’ performances to drop down in school.

Normally, on a normal school day you would have to eat breakfast before going to school, but since schools start extremely early sometimes you may not even have time to eat breakfast. The website “Sleep Junkie” proves that not eating breakfast can result in difficulty paying attention in class because of hunger and what's worse, not eating breakfast can also result in poor eating routines. That being said, breakfast is an important meal of the day and skipping it due to school can have negative effects on your body. Many people do not believe that breakfast is a very crucial meal during the day, but skipping breakfast can actually lead to some serious consequences that you probably wouldn’t want. For example, the article on tatahealth.com proves that ,”Studies indicate that people who skip their breakfast regularly are at a higher risk of suffering from constant headaches and migraine.” During school, headaches and migraines can prevent you from learning and focusing, but later school starting times can allow you to have much more time to eat breakfast which can prevent headaches/migraines. Overall, breakfast is an extremely crucial part of the day which helps solve problems in school like having difficulty focusing in class and also difficulties we have in our bodies.

It should be noted that some students even have to go so far as to drink coffee in the morning in order to be energized for school, but drinking coffee can also have some unwanted effects. However, if schools can start later in the morning, then students wouldn’t have to rely on coffee to keep them energized! Some harmful effects of drinking coffee according to the website “eachnight.com” are that ,”Children and adolescents tend to be highly sensitive to the effects of caffeine. When consumed, it may lead to negative effects such as dehydration, heart complications, sleep disturbances, anxiousness, feeling jittery, and nausea.” Drinking coffee can lead to various harmful effects to our bodies, but if school times start later, then coffee wouldn’t need to be relied on for energy in the morning! Drinking coffee can actually raise blood pressure too which is proven when The Mayo Clinic performed an experiment and gave people with hypertension or high blood pressure about 2 coffees and discovered that their blood pressure had increased. Taking a sip of coffee in the morning does provide energy for people, but it does have many downsides that are harmful to our bodies. All things considered, the usage of coffee has many harmful effects to our bodies, but students drinking coffee can be reduced as long as our schools provide a later starting time.

To summarize this essay, starting school later in the morning can benefit not only our students, but also teachers, principals, and other staff members! Some benefits of starting school later are that students can have more sleep which can result in better grades and mental health! Headaches and migraines can also be prevented and this is because later school times also provide students with more time to eat breakfast. The last benefit of starting school later is the reduced usage of coffee since later school times mean more hours to sleep which will lead to more energy in the morning. Overall, beginning school at a later time can have many positive effects to everyone in school so having late school starting times should definitely exist!