![]() Depression, obesity, substance use and abuse, and increased car crashes are just some of the serious consequences. Medical research has shown dramatic negative effects of sleep deprivation, especially in people who are chronically sleep-deprived. and when students must awaken early for a school day that begins before 8:30 a.m. Teens need about 9.25 hours of sleep each night, a difficult amount to obtain when the brain doesn’t enter sleep mode until about 10:45 p.m. Most teens experience this so-called sleep phase shift only during adolescence the shift will disappear as teens enter their 20s. ![]() This delay in the circadian rhythms for teenagers is directly related to hormonal changes during puberty. and that their brains remain in sleep mode until about 8 a.m. What we know about human development and, most recently, about the maturation of the teenage brain lends credence to the fact that “it’s a matter of biology, not choice” that teenagers are unable to fall asleep before about 10:45 p.m. The outcomes for the Minneapolis students were similar to those for Edina, although the settings - urban as opposed to suburban - couldn’t have been more different. The multitiered busing schedule moved elementary students to the earliest times, with high school and middle school students shifting to the later times. This change affected 52,000 K-12 students. Over 92% of the parents said their kids were “easier to live with.”Īs the early findings from Edina were being reported, the Minneapolis Public Schools superintendent and school board decided a year later, in 1997, that they, too, would change the start times of their seven comprehensive high schools from 7:20 a.m. Students were now awake the first hour of class, the principal reported fewer disciplinary incidents in the halls and lunchroom, and students reported less depression and feelings of greater efficacy. Our research team found amazing changes were happening. This association between brain development and teenagers was new to me.īut as we started our yearlong study, the evidence began piling up. As a former teacher, school principal, and district office administrator in special education, I thought I had heard it all when it came to explaining teenage behavior. When I learned the reason for the change - namely, that the district’s later start time purported to address developmental changes in the teenage brain related to sleep - I was skeptical. The superintendent of Minnesota’s Edina School District was reaching out to CAREI, seeking to discover if the new change in the start time of their high school - from 7:20 a.m. ![]() It all began with a phone call 20 years ago to the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota in August 1996. New research shows that high school students benefit in many ways from later start times.
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