I get it... at the same time though, sure it was hard to wake up in the morning but that's because I would be up till 12 am playing video games, lol.
I can easily see tons of kids going "oh now I can stay up till 1-2 am" and as someone that is currently struggling to actually fix my sleep schedule after going WFH, its hard to stay on track.
Despite all that though, I do hope this shows potential or at least reveals new information.
There’s been research that shows teens have something like a shifted biological clock.
Even before the era of late night multiplayer games and browsing the Facespace and instatoks, teens were staying up, partying or prowling the streets. It’s been a stereotype since the dawn of time that teens go out late at night and are up to no good.
I've heard of this research. I wouldn't at all doubt it. I think 8:30 is perfectly reasonable... I just don't think it will have the effects people think it will. Maybe a marginal improvement which is fine to shoot for... but I just see too many kids choosing an extra hour of games/phone vs sleep.
> Places that have already pushed back school start times have repeatedly seen positive results. When Seattle’s public-school district shifted its start time in 2016 (from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.), students got a median of an additional 34 minutes of sleep a night as a result. And in Cherry Creek, a Denver-area suburb, high schoolers slept about 45 minutes longer on average, and those improvements endured even two years after the change.
34 extra minutes of sleep on 55 is pretty good IMO.
Society has always done plenty of things that are hugely unfriendly to basic human nature. Historically it's often been out of necessity, but fortunately we're well-off enough now as a group to afford changing that.
Maybe your stayed up later because that was the time your body was at its peak awareness. It could be conditioned that way, or it could be built into your genes.
After all, somebody had to stay up and keep watch all night when we lived in caves.
Congratulations, you have reinvented a scientific hypothesis. Unfortunately I can’t find a related article in one minute’s search but IIRC even sure extremely small groups, less than 10 people there’s enough variety in sleep patterns that on average someone is awake for all but ~30 minutes most nights.
That’s their and/or their parent’s choice to make, the important point is that the system shouldn’t be set up in such a way that it’s impossible for them to live a healthy lifestyle.
I had stretches where I would sleep/wake at a full 8 hrs and in time for school. I would be lying if it wasn't ~90% personal accountability of winding down when I needed to. Other 10% was if I were sick or had some insomnia which at that point wouldn't matter what I did or when school started. Even struggle with it now.
If school starts at 7:30 and you live an hour away with school morning traffic, you’d have to get up at 6am at the latest. Given the need for 8-10 hours of sleep (particularly for highly active athletes who need the extra sleep for muscle recovery), you’d need to go to sleep between 8pm and 10pm. My understanding is that its very difficult for teenagers to go to sleep before 10 for biological reasons, so only a teen with monk like discipline could get the bare minimum (and even then that might not be enough depending on their exercise regimen).
So yeah it’s technically not “impossible”, but it’s very difficult, and it seems to me without good reason.
> When Seattle’s public-school district shifted its start time in 2016 (from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.), students got a median of an additional 34 minutes of sleep a night as a result. And in Cherry Creek, a Denver-area suburb, high schoolers slept about 45 minutes longer on average, and those improvements endured even two years after the change.
I can agree with this. I did always find it a bit jarring that I had to wake up before the sun was even out, lol. Thinking about it now you raise a good point. Haven't woken up that early in years. I find it 100x easier to wake up when I have the blinds open to hit me in the morning.
I can easily see tons of kids going "oh now I can stay up till 1-2 am" and as someone that is currently struggling to actually fix my sleep schedule after going WFH, its hard to stay on track.
Despite all that though, I do hope this shows potential or at least reveals new information.