When the Seattle School District delayed high school start times by an hour, students caught an extra 34 minutes of sleep per day, and their grades improved by about 5 percent while absences decreased by 7 percent. Research at https://advances.sciencemag.org highlights the ways in which traditional high school start times, which aren’t aligned to teenagers’ natural circadian rhythms, can cause physical, mental, and cognitive health problems.
While previous studies relied on anecdotal or self-reported evidence to establish alink between sleep, academic performance, and school start times, the new research is the first high-quality, scientific study to quantify the real world benefits of delaying start times for high school students.
