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New study examines if it's time for schools to start classes later in the morning

Daylight saving time ends this weekend, but it's still not easy to get out of bed when it's dark outside.

CLEVELAND — Now that we're going back to "normal" time, it may also be time to revisit the discussion of later school start times.

California became the first state to do it. A bill was introduced in Ohio in 2019, but gained no traction. However, a study out of Denver showed it not only helped kids, but parents, too.

Researchers at National Jewish Health found parents of adolescents got more sleep when middle and high schools start about an hour later, while the sleep habits of parents of younger children were unaffected by earlier elementary school start times. The study is the first ever to examine parent sleep as an outcome for changing school start times.

National Jewish Health partnered with the Cherry Creek School District (CCSD) near Denver to examine the impact of adjusting the school district's start times, with elementary schools starting an hour earlier while high schools started 70 minutes later and middle schools were delayed 50 minutes. Researchers surveyed parents and conducted focus groups on how the adjustments affected their sleep and daily routine.

"We know adolescents are sleep deprived, we know that early school start times are a major factor contributing to it," Dr. Lisa Meltzer, a pediatric psychologist at National Jewish Health and lead author of the study, said. "But kids don't live in a vacuum; they live within a very complex family system, so it was important to look at parents' sleep and how this policy change impacted the entire family."

Parents of elementary school students moved both bedtimes and wake times slightly earlier without any significant impact to their sleep duration. Parents of middle and high school students were not staying up any later at night, but were able to sleep later in the morning with the later start times.

"For some parents, it was just nine or 10 minutes," Meltzer explained. "But for others, it was up to 25 minutes a night. Over the course of the week, even 10 minutes a night can add up and become almost an extra hour of sleep per week."

The percentage of parents who reported getting sufficient sleep — defined as at least seven hours for adults — also increased for parents who had children in middle or high school, with fewer parents reporting being tired during the day.

"Parents were really feeling the benefits of not having to wake up as early, drag their kids out of bed, and try and get them to school on time," Meltzer said. "A lot of parents said that it not only helped their sleep, but also it helped make their morning routine easier, and I think those improvements to the way families function are really important, as well."

Logistically changing start times would be a huge effort because of all the other things that have to be considered, such as bus routes and extracurricular schedules.

Dr. Meltzer says it should be considered for the health of kids and their parents. 

"Three out of four teens in America right now are getting less than seven hours of sleep a night, and early school start times are one of the major contributing factors," Meltzer said. "We know that insufficient sleep is associated with several health problems — including obesity and high blood pressure — and is very strongly associated with mental health issues, including depression and anxiety. It also impacts their ability to pay attention and learn in school, which is critical in order for kids to be successful."

Research has shown that adolescents are not biologically equipped to rise early in the morning, as the sleep hormone melatonin is released about two hours later in the day during puberty. Even the CDC thinks it's an issue.

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