The logical answer, one might conclude, is for parents to enforce stricter bedtimes, and restrict television and computer use when it comes time for their child to get their full ten hours of sleep before hitting the books again the next morning. However, parents have always found it difficult to argue with their child’s biological tendencies. For reasons unbeknownst to us, a teenager’s biological clock shifts so that their natural inclination is to go to sleep later in the evening and get up later in the morning. Teenagers do not begin to feel tired until eleven o’clock, and have difficulty applying themselves before nine o’clock in the morning. Students forced to bed before their biological clocks tel

Even assuming that students could remember everything they were taught without a good nights sleep, it would be ludicrous to presume that they could digest everything being lectured, especially in their earlier classes. An estimated 15% of students catnap during the school day, the rest yawning through it as best they can. After the state medical association in Minnesota issued a warning that early start times were incompatible with teenager’s body clocks to school superintendents, Minneapolis changed high school opening times from 7:15 to 8:40. The University of Minnesota has been researching the changes, and overall attendance and graduation rates have increased while tardiness has decreased as students no longer have to rush to school.

Changing school opening times will obviously have an effect on the rest of the community, but not necessarily a negative one. The main concern is extracurricular activities and sports. Sports don’t customarily begin until three o’clock in a school system. If high school didn’t open until nine o’clock and sports began directly after school there would be only a one half hour postponement. If absolutely necessary, some clubs and activities could be done before school, and even if they lasted an hour the students would still get an extra half hour of sleep.

Sleeping does more than keep a teenager alert during classes. Sleep is vital for the product

Some topics in this essay:
, University Minnesota, Tradition Tradition, nine o’clock, starting times, o’clock morning, nine o’clock morning, school times, school half, nights sleep, university minnesota, nation’s youth, sleep deprived,