Just about every parent of a teen will identify with the difficulty of getting them up and out in the morning. “I can’t function first thing,” is a familiar refrain in households across the globe.
But those who dismiss this as pure laziness may be in for a surprise: it turns out it could be true.
Experiments with later school starting times have seen beneficial effects on student progress, prompting a major research study into teens and sleep.
And if the results found in one school are replicated on a large scale, it could have a significant impact not just on schools, but on parents too.
It took a Californian to experiment with later school start times in the U.K. Paul Kelley, a school principal in north-east England, already had a reputation as a maverick – he eschewed his office in favour of a desk among his students – when started to look at how neuroscience could be used to improve student learning.
After a decade’s research into the available evidence, and with a willingness to look for unconventional solutions, he decided to push back the school start time to 10am.
The move coincided with a dramatic improvement in exam results. The proportion of students achieving the national targets at 16 rose from 34% to 53%. Among disadvantaged students the increase was even more profound, from 19% to 43%.
It was not just the results that improved. According to Dr Kelley, the incidence of illness also went down and the atmosphere in school improved, as students were nicer to teachers and each other.
It is on the back of the success of that trial that researchers at Oxford University have launched what they describe as the “largest study ever” into the effect of later school start times on student performance.
The Teensleep project will also involve teaching students about good bed-time routines, the science behind getting a good night’s sleep, and how to maintain good sleep during stressful periods.
A sample of students in each school will wear telemetric devices on their wrists to measure whether their sleep improves as a result of the interventions.
According to the Education Endowment Foundation, which is funding the project alongside the Wellcome Trust, “adolescent circadian rhythms… are delayed by approximately two hours compared to adults’, so current school start times often force teenagers to wake up and learn whilst their body is still prepared for sleep.”
These sleep patterns are exacerbated by a greater exposure to social media and abnormal light from electronic devices.
The research team, with Dr Kelley now an honorary associate having left his school post, is now recruiting 100 schools across the U.K. to take part in a randomized control trial. Although the results are not expected to be evaluated until 2018, it will join a growing body of evidence about the impact of later start times.
There are already signs that public opinion is shifting. Earlier this year, a University of Michigan survey found that half of parents of teens would support a later school start time. A University of Minnesota study published last year just the latest to show a correlation between later starts and improved performance.
Better grades could be a clincher, but links between more sleep and lower rates of depression and improved mood will also provide food for thought for parents. If this latest research provides firm evidence that more sleep is good for teens, it will be hard to resist the clamor to allow them an extra hour in bed.
