California recently announced that they were moving the start times to later in the school day; “School districts in the state will have a three-year window — until the start of the 2022-23 school year — to implement schedules that ring the first-period bell no earlier than 8:30 a.m. for high schools and 8 a.m. for middle schools.”

I think that this experiment will be a large improvement on the education system as well as how students function and act throughout throughout the school day. By having a later start time, the high school students will get a “normal” amount of sleep of 5-7 hours instead of 5-0 hours of sleep daily.

On average, Roswell High School students get around two to five hours of sleep per night, which is not good at all because, “according to the National Sleep Foundation, 13-17-year-olds need 8-10 hours of sleep (Per study.com).

When students aren’t getting the right hours of sleep, it can mess with their brain strength as well as their physical and mental health. I conducted a survey asking students about how they feel about school’s current start time versus a later system should be implemented.

“I would be much more awake and  refreshed if we started school at 10:30 allowing students to sleep in and say finish homework. Allowing students to have a full normal and healthy sleep schedule,” said senior Mattie Wilson.

Having a normal sleep schedule is one of the healthiest things a system can incorporate for high school students, because their bodies are still growing. Teenage bodies are working hard and they need to get as much sleep as possible for studying, memory and health. Some of these symptoms of poor sleeping habits include obesity, diabetes, injuries and poor mental health, just to name a few.

When asked “Do you like our current school start time of 8:20am,” 41.38% of respondents said that they do like 8:20 a.m. and the other 58.3% of respondents said no they do not like it. They were then asked what time would they prefer. 36.21% said 8:20 a.m., 43.10% said 9:20 a.m. and while 20.69% said 10:00 a.m..

By getting this information, it seems as if pushing the start time back at minimum one hour would be encouraged by students and would increase their motivation to come to school and learn.

One of the most shocking results to the question “Would you like a later start time if it will mean getting out later?” was that 32.76% of respondents said that they would prefer starting later and getting out later due to the later start. 67.24% said that they would not want a later start time if it meant they had to stay later.

I feel as if California is moving in a very innovative direction as well as a better and healthier way of  improving students’ needs. I think more states should look into pushing the start time later in the day.