School Start Times Essay

Many adolescents view getting enough sleep as an unachievable ambition when it is really a biological necessity. Teens are faced with many newer issues to think about on top of growing up. We are given many pressures with social influences and also with mental health rates rising it is a worry for many of us and it shows with anxiety and depression rates going up due to sleep loss(Psychcentral,2013). Because of things like social issues and personal issues that all teenagers deal with, suffering from sleep deprivation makes processing all our conflicts in life a lot harder and affects: the way our memory functions, our mental health and our overall cognitive performances. With that in mind I think it is very important that school starts later so we can achieve the recommended amount of sleep to be able to function to our fullest potential.

During adolescence Limbic system is changing radically along with the rest of our brain region. Our limbic system has many parts including the Amygdala and hippocampus which are involved in the processing and storing of our memories. The majority of what we do as teengers is form memories, weather that is with friends or in school where we are expected to memorize vast amounts of work everyday and retaining all the work given can be nearly impossible for us. With enough sleep it gives our brain time to consolidate what we have learned and also with a lack of sleep we get with early school times it impairs our ability to focus efficiently. Several studies indicated that only sleep, which occurred at an early specific time window after learning, effectively facilitated memory consolidation(oxfordacademic,2012). Sleep deprivation can result in the difficulty to retrieve memories. When sitting in a classroom for 6 hours a day we hope what we learn can be retained but without sleep we cannot.

Classroom learning and social interactions are both critical to the success of students.

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