Sleep Deprivation Is an Issue at West Hartford High Schools

A common sight at Conard High School in West Hartford: teenagers falling asleep in class, unfocused students rubbing their eyes, friends complaining to one another about their fatigue. Many overlook these symptoms of sleep deprivation or simply consider them part of being a teenager. Sleep deprivation should not be ignored, however, as it has many adverse effects on safety, health, and education.

Countless studies have recently been conducted warning about the dangers of not getting enough sleep, particularly for teenagers, who are in a critical phase of physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development. Pediatricians recommend that teenagers sleep between 8 and 10 hours per night, although few Conard students are consistently getting this amount of sleep (see survey). One 2014 study from the University of Minnesota found that sleep deprivation in teenagers led to increased depression symptoms, increased consumption of caffeine, increased substance abuse, and an increase in the number of car crashes. The same study noted that when the school start time changed from 7:30 AM to 8:35 AM, there was an increase in students’ grades and standardized test scores and the number of car crashes decreased by 70%. An 8:35 AM start time also increased the percentage of students who slept at least 8 hours per night to 60%.

Teenagers’ internal circadian rhythms naturally cause them to feel tired at about 10:00 or 11:00 PM and to wake up at about 8:00 or 9:00 AM. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a report in 2014 citing early high school start times (i.e., 7:30 AM) as a “key modifiable contributor to insufficient sleep, as well as circadian rhythm disruption.” The Academy went so far as to say that “insufficient sleep in adolescents [is] an important public health issue that significantly affects the health and safety, as well as the academic success, of our nation’s middle and high school students.”

It is true that changing school start times is very complicated for the district. However, in response to community pressure, West Hartford changed the mascots of its high schools, an issue that did not affect the health, development, education or safety of students as drastically as the issue of sleep deprivation does. Similarly, with enough pressure, the district will recognize the dire need to push back the start time of its high schools. Conard, in particular, touts its leading position in Connecticut high school rankings, yet appears completely indifferent to an issue that has recently been raised by major health organizations and national publications. In order to preserve our superb state ranking, Conard High School and the district of West Hartford need to grant sleep deprivation the attention it deserves by adjusting the high school start times to better meet the needs of West Hartford students.

Moving our school start time to 8:30 would subtract one hour of time in the afternoon for extracurricular activities and sports practices. This consequence of a later start time is unavoidable and would leave us two options. Either we sacrifice our sleep for after-school activities or we sacrifice an hour of after-school activities for sleep. We should choose the latter. It is not logical to deny our bodies a basic necessity of life in order to spend more time performing activities that would be improved with more rest. After-school activities should not prevent our district from instituting a schedule change that would have far-reaching medical, educational, and safety benefits for students.