I live in the Midwest, Ohio to be exact, so my little hometown was greatly affected by what my mom calls "The Big Freeze" that swept the nation earlier this week. My younger sisters' school cancelled Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and delayed on Thursday, so when they had to go back to school yesterday at normal time, they were exhausted. They didn't do much or stay up terribly late while they were off school, so what was the big deal?
I took a Biopsychology class last semester and learned quite a bit about sleep. My professor explained in a lecture that teenagers have quite different sleep patterns than adults do. And adult sleep patterns don't kick in until about mid to late twenties. You see, in adults, the sleep hormone, melatonin, is released when the sky gets dark and feel sleepy a few hours later. For example, if the sky gets dark at 7PM, an adult will likely go to sleep around 9 or 10PM.
Teenagers, on the other hand, don't release melatonin until 9 or 10PM, sometimes later. As a result, they don't go to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. so, adults, when you make a comment about teenagers staying up too late, remember that it's actually part of their biology. Why? That I don't know.
Because of all of this, wouldn't it be wise to start school later? Adequate sleep could sky-rocket teenagers' performance in school and athletics. The big question from people I've talked to about this idea? "When will we have sports practices and games?" Well, prepare yourself for this drastic suggestion....., what if we shortened the school day? Woah, did she just say that?! Yes, I did. Kids do not need 7 hours of school every day. Actually, I believe it's been suggested that they only need about five. So, if the school day starts at 10AM instead of 8, and school is shortened to five hours instead of seven, school would end at the same time it does now, leaving plenty of time for sports and activities.
A probable solution, now to get the adults on board!
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