I am always tired. My life revolves around school, so my sleep schedule does too. According to the Michigan Advance, lack of sleep is common in teens. Lack of sleep can lead to a higher risk of being overweight, drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and lower academic performance.  I know for certain that if my body wants me to still be asleep then I am like a zombie, I don’t learn, I don’t pay attention, and I certainly get nothing out of school.

 However, it doesn’t have to be this way.

DHS has a seventh hour and it should not be a seventh hour. Rather, it should instead be a zero hour. Instead of having the zero hour take place before our school start time, it would take place when first hour currently starts, beginning at 7:40 a.m. This would only apply to students who wish to take seven hours. This would allow regular six-hour students the choice to start school at 8:30 a.m. without disrupting the bussing schedules or forcing sports and clubs to start later because these activities start after what is currently seventh hour. While I currently have a seventh hour, I would drop it in an instant to take advantage of sleeping in later. Then, I can stay up later working on homework or doing something for fun, knowing I won’t kick myself for it in the morning when I am dead to the world.

You and your parents may be wondering if this change would help at all or if it would just encourage us to go to sleep even later than we already do. However, going to bed later is natural for us anyway! The National Institute of Health states that teenagers’ biological clocks give us the tendency to fall asleep and wake up later because our melatonin, which is a chemical released in the body to help us sleep, is released later at night, and stops producing later in the day. That means I am so exhausted during the morning of our current school day because I, and all teens, are hardwired to still be sleeping! I wonder what our parents would have to say about that?

Another argument against this very logical change is the additional costs of changing the bussing schedules and parents’ work schedules to accommodate this change, However, a study by the Rand Corporation says the opposite. 

“Our analysis estimated that delaying school start times to 8:30 a.m. could contribute $83 billion to the U.S. economy over a decade. This projected gain is due to higher academic and professional achievement, reduced car crash rates, and better overall health.” Who knew that kids who weren’t asleep at the wheel, didn’t crash as much? I wish we didn’t need studies to prove what common sense tells us.

With that new information, no arguments seem to be left against school starting later. This isn’t surprising, seeing as the one thing overarching all of school, learning, just isn’t happening in the morning, so any changes that need to be made to make sure kids are learning, while they initially may be difficult, are needed.

This change wouldn’t only affect us positively, but it would also help our teachers. I know that when my teachers are tired, overworked, or just plain done with the day, I can tell. Less gets done, the class gets crazy, and sometimes we have a sub, which is even worse. A study by the Journal of School Health, conducted in 2022, showed that teachers who worked at schools that started later got better sleep and had increased daytime functioning. So not only will we feel better because we comply with our biological clock, but most teachers will also teach better due to the increased amount of sleep they get. 

Later school start times are the most rational thing MPS could do, and turning our seventh hour into a zero hour is the best way to go about that. I know that I for one would be enjoying the shift in sleep schedules.