DR. BOBS DAILY: AAP CALLS FOR LATER START TIME FOR SCHOOLS Interesting idea. The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement calling for all middle and high schools to start classes no earlier than 8:30 a.m. They cite several valid reasons for this change: Adolescents have a natural shift in their circadian rhythms which makes it difficult for many to fall asleep before 11 pm and causes them to naturally need to sleep in. 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 hours of sleep each night is recommended for adolescent health. This would imply sleeping from about 10 pm to 7 am, or 11 pm to 7:30 am. Schedule demands (sports, homework, part-time jobs, social activities, family time, and use of technology) make it difficult to routinely have an adequately early bedtime. Use of TVs, computers, or cell phones late into the evening may further disrupt the bodys natural circadian rhythms and interfere with falling asleep. The light from these devices may trick the brain into thinking its still daytime and disrupt the natural sleep hormones. Adolescents could benefit from turning off technology earlier in the evening. Inadequate sleep raises the risk of depression, obesity, poor school performance, car accidents, and an overall lower quality of life. My twelve-year-old is in 7th grade. He seems to easily fall asleep by 9:30, and gets about 9 hours of sleep. But he has to get up at 6:30 with an alarm so he can beat his schools 7:50 tardy bell. On weekends he wakes up on his own around 7:00 or 7:15. So if school started later, hed get up naturally around 7 or so and be at school by 8:30. This would follow his normal rhythms and he would get a solid 9 1/2 hours of sleep. So that would be cool. My high-schoolers, who are now in college, only got about 7 1/2 of sleep when they were in high school. Not nearly enough. They would have LOVED to sleep until 7:30 each morning. Now that they are in college, they dont have any early classes and they get more sleep than they did in high school. So maybe this would be a good policy. Would mean a later school day, though. I wonder if many school districts will listen to this recommendation. I you are involved in making policy at your childrens school, and you agree this is a good idea, you now have the baking of the AAP to help you make a change. Click on the link below to view the AAPs policy. Dr. Bob
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 15:36:01 +0000
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