2 thoughts on “Policy Options Brief on Adolescent Sleep Issues”
Sleep is vital to well-being and often one of the first areas of health that is sacrificed. I found this interesting in that, when I was in Middle School, I did want to start later (we began at 8AM and my High School started at 7:13AM), as I was busy with homework and extracurricular activities. However, being in the suburbs, there was no room to adjust the schedule since the same pool of busses were needed for the Elementary, Middle and High Schools.
A school in New York City has the benefit of being able to use public transportation to allow kids to travel to school and are, I believe, not completely reliant on providing bus transportation for students. You mentioned Greene Hill Middle School has only one bus system. Although it is not entirely clear from your proposal, it can be interpreted that the bus route makes more than one trip to accommodate the different starting times. If the problem here is a timing issue of bus routes, is it possible for the school to pick up the elementary age students a little earlier, complete the route and then pick up the middle schoolers? Either way parents will struggle with day care and after school activities regardless of starting time and/or the child’s grade level.
I am intrigued by the studies you mentioned about the benefit of exercise in alleviating some of the problems associated with lack of sleep. This is something I did not know about. Would there be an accommodation for those children who are unable to participate in the rigorous exercise programs you mention due to health or other restrictions? This is a good option when there is an inability to change the start times, or change them enough to be impactful.
Lastly, as you mention, the problem with personnel and other logistics can be complicated. However, again, since other, larger programs have been able to work around this, it seems that it can be done when all the students attend the same school, with the possibility of a uniform start/dismissal time that just begins later in the day.
I feel you have presented viable options to a real impediment to the education of our students. The only additional information needed would be more detail on the detriments to the lack of proper sleep in older children so that the real impact of this issue can be addressed. This is a problem that continues throughout a person’s secondary education. Perhaps some statistics on a broader scale of the potential health, educational, and long-term negative effects of lack of sleep would bring the importance of this issue for all middle schoolers to light.
Very interesting problem and policy brief! I know this has been a topic for quite sometime since I remember it being debated when I was a child. You make a good argument for why it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. It was interesting to learn that the sleep cycles of pre-adolescents and teenagers don’t allow them to get to bed early even they wanted to. I think the best option would be to push back the start time of school, however as you suggested, there are so many components that go into it. I’m intrigued by the flexible schedule, but to be honest, I didn’t fully understand it. Are you saying that every day there are three schedules to pick from and students can pick whichever one they want to adhere to each day? Or it’s different schedules throughout the week? You may want to go a bit deeper into the explanation for this policy.
Sleep is vital to well-being and often one of the first areas of health that is sacrificed. I found this interesting in that, when I was in Middle School, I did want to start later (we began at 8AM and my High School started at 7:13AM), as I was busy with homework and extracurricular activities. However, being in the suburbs, there was no room to adjust the schedule since the same pool of busses were needed for the Elementary, Middle and High Schools.
A school in New York City has the benefit of being able to use public transportation to allow kids to travel to school and are, I believe, not completely reliant on providing bus transportation for students. You mentioned Greene Hill Middle School has only one bus system. Although it is not entirely clear from your proposal, it can be interpreted that the bus route makes more than one trip to accommodate the different starting times. If the problem here is a timing issue of bus routes, is it possible for the school to pick up the elementary age students a little earlier, complete the route and then pick up the middle schoolers? Either way parents will struggle with day care and after school activities regardless of starting time and/or the child’s grade level.
I am intrigued by the studies you mentioned about the benefit of exercise in alleviating some of the problems associated with lack of sleep. This is something I did not know about. Would there be an accommodation for those children who are unable to participate in the rigorous exercise programs you mention due to health or other restrictions? This is a good option when there is an inability to change the start times, or change them enough to be impactful.
Lastly, as you mention, the problem with personnel and other logistics can be complicated. However, again, since other, larger programs have been able to work around this, it seems that it can be done when all the students attend the same school, with the possibility of a uniform start/dismissal time that just begins later in the day.
I feel you have presented viable options to a real impediment to the education of our students. The only additional information needed would be more detail on the detriments to the lack of proper sleep in older children so that the real impact of this issue can be addressed. This is a problem that continues throughout a person’s secondary education. Perhaps some statistics on a broader scale of the potential health, educational, and long-term negative effects of lack of sleep would bring the importance of this issue for all middle schoolers to light.
Very interesting problem and policy brief! I know this has been a topic for quite sometime since I remember it being debated when I was a child. You make a good argument for why it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. It was interesting to learn that the sleep cycles of pre-adolescents and teenagers don’t allow them to get to bed early even they wanted to. I think the best option would be to push back the start time of school, however as you suggested, there are so many components that go into it. I’m intrigued by the flexible schedule, but to be honest, I didn’t fully understand it. Are you saying that every day there are three schedules to pick from and students can pick whichever one they want to adhere to each day? Or it’s different schedules throughout the week? You may want to go a bit deeper into the explanation for this policy.